pet peeve

American  

[pet peev] / ˈpɛt ˈpiv /

noun

1. a particular and often continual annoyance; personal bugbear.

   This train service is one of my pet peeves.

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pet peeve Idioms  

1. A particular or recurring source of irritation, as in My pet peeve is that neighbor's cat running through my herb garden. [Early 1900s]

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Etymology

Origin of pet peeve

An Americanism dating back to 1915–20

Example Sentences

It’s a pet peeve of hers when someone is multitasking when she’s trying to talk to them.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 15, 2026

“It’s a pet peeve with many people,” he told me.

From Slate • Mar. 6, 2025

"It was something that, at first, would always really excite me, but has become increasingly something of a pet peeve," said bookseller and fantasy blogger Bethan Hindmarch, from Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire.

From BBC • Jan. 4, 2025

The manager’s guess was that Smith’s reserved nature and outwardly “vanilla” personality — a prime example this week, Smith said his biggest pet peeve is simply “being late” — made him easy to overlook.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 11, 2023

This is how I find out that Miss McDaniels has yet another pet peeve besides lateness, wasting valuable time, and utter nonsense.

From "Merci Suárez Changes Gears" by Meg Medina