peeve
Americanverb (used with object)
-
peeves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
peeved,
past participle, past
-
peeving
present participle
noun
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peeves
plural
-
a source of annoyance or irritation.
Tardiness is one of my greatest peeves.
- Synonyms:
- grievance, affliction, vexation
-
an annoyed or irritated mood.
to be in a peeve.
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
peevesimple
-
peevessimple
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have peevedperfect
-
has peevedperfect
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am peevingprogressive
-
are peevingprogressive
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is peevingprogressive
-
have been peevingperfect progressive
-
has been peevingperfect progressive
Past
-
peevedsimple
-
had peevedperfect
-
was peevingprogressive
-
were peevingprogressive
-
had been peevingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of peeve
1905–10, back formation from peevish
Explanation
A peeve is something that really annoys you, like waiting in a long line or dropping a can on your toe because someone left it on the counter. Again. It's also a word for describing your resulting mood: peeved. You probably know the term "pet peeve," which is something that may not bother everyone, but particularly irritates you. Your pet peeve might be misspelled words on signs, mismatched socks, or close talkers. Peeve is also a verb, meaning "irritate." The adjective peevish, for “silly, perverse” came first, in the fourteenth century.
Vocabulary lists containing peeve
The Sound and the Fury: Synonyms for "Anger"
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Concrete Rose
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Red Flags and Butterflies
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“I have a pet peeve about mental-health narratives in a lot of movies,” says Shear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2026
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 fact that many prescriptive rules are worth keeping does not mean that every pet peeve, bit of grammatical folklore, or dimly remembered lesson from Miss Thistlebottom’s classroom is worth keeping.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
His biggest etiquette pet peeves include underdressing and overfamiliarity, especially in virtual settings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 16, 2025
When I asked El-Erian about the Fed, I was gratified to hear him address one of my pet peeves: the dim-bulb types who proudly declare themselves to be data-dependent, full stop.
From Barron's ● Nov. 21, 2025
For years, Daniel Ek, Spotify’s chief executive, has been laying into one of his personal peeves, the health care system.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2024
The two also jested about their pet peeves about each other.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2023
Instead of getting to know each other, becoming familiar with likes and dislikes, ticklish spots, pet peeves, Desdemona and Lefty tried to defamiliarize themselves with each other.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
One former official recalls a departing prime minister being peeved there was an "office spruce-up", with walls being freshly painted for their replacement about to arrive.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
Apple’s AI missteps, including a botched rollout of a smarter version of the Siri voice assistant, peeved investors last year.
From MarketWatch ● May 8, 2026
“It sounds like a competitor’s just peeved that they’re losing market share,” Kershner said, “and maybe they’re grasping at straws.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
The Martha Stewart Living founder, who appears peeved occasionally throughout the documentary, told Fallon she didn’t enjoy the process of making the film.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2024
Tony was a little peeved at having the one speech of his lifetime ruined like that.
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
No-one needs point out to Starmer himself that changing the leadership mid-government causes huge disruption to Whitehall and the country by slowing down the government's work and peeving the public.
From BBC ● May 16, 2026
Vigilante peeving does nothing to actually educate people.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 4, 2013
Instead of peeving about supposed incorrect usage, they find themselves using better dictionaries, consulting better usage guides, and looking at cost-free high-quality online materials - such as language corpora - to figure it out.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2011
I can't say I was wholly faultless in peeving Governor Reed but I couldn't let him get away with that.
From Time Magazine Archive
He was exulting in the thought that he must be peeving Amanda.
From Amanda — a Daughter of the Mennonites by Anna Balmer Myers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
