irritative

American  

[ir-i-tey-tiv] / ˈɪr ɪˌteɪ tɪv /

adjective

1. serving or tending to irritate.

2. Pathology. characterized or produced by irritation of some body part.

   an irritative fever.

---

Other Word Forms

• irritativeness noun
• unirritative adjective

Etymology

Origin of irritative

First recorded in 1680–90; irritate + -ive

Example Sentences

"We are recording a surge in the number of irritative bronchitis infections," Jugal Kishore, the head of the medicine department at the city's Safdarjung Hospital, told PTI news agency.

From BBC • Nov. 2, 2023

Miss Beauchamp laughs a low, soft, irritative laugh.

From Airy Fairy Lilian by Margaret Wolfe Hamilton (AKA Duchess)

It is of course diagnosticated without difficulty from the sporadic catarrhal fevers, which lack the characteristic depression, neuralgic and rheumatoid pains, the irritative cough, dyspnoea, and so on.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

Invertentia, or those things which invert the natural order of the successive irritative motions.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus

These attacks are usually spoken of as recrudescences of fever, and do not differ materially from attacks of irritative fever occurring under other circumstances.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various