irritate

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪɹ.ɪˌteɪt/

• Audio (US)

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Etymology 1

From Latin irrītātus, past participle of irrītō (“excite, irritate, incite, stimulate”).

Verb

irritate (third-person singular simple present irritates, present participle irritating, simple past and past participle irritated)

1. (transitive) To provoke impatience, anger, or displeasure in.
   • 1814, Signor Vestris, La Didone Abbandonata, a Serious Opera, in Two Acts. Altered from Metastasio, by Signor Vestris. As Represented at the King’s Theatre, in the Hay-Market., London: […] J. Gillet, […], page 15:

     If thou irritatest my lord, there will come to war against thee all the Getulians, Numidians, and Garamantes, Afric contains.

   • 1896, Ernest Rénan, translated by Eleanor Grant Vickery, Caliban: A Philosophical Drama Continuing “The Tempest” of William Shakespeare (Publications of The Shakespeare Society of New York; No. 9), New York, N.Y.: The Shakespeare Press; London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd., page 19:

     Thou scandalizest me and irritatest my nature as much as it possibly can be irritated.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 10:

     Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.

2. (intransitive) To cause or induce displeasure or irritation.
3. (transitive) To induce pain in (all or part of a body or organism).

Synonyms

• provoke
• rile

Antonyms

• placate
• please
• soothe

Related terms

• irritant
• irritation
• irritative
• irritatory

 

Translations

to cause or induce displeasure or irritation

• Armenian: նյարդայնացնել (hy) (nyardaynacʻnel), զայրացնել (hy) (zayracʻnel), ջղայնացնել (hy) (ǰġaynacʻnel)
• Azerbaijani: qıcıqlandırmaq
• Belarusian: раздражня́ць impf (razdražnjácʹ)
• Bengali: জ্বালাতন করা (bn) (jalaton kora)
• Bulgarian: дразня (bg) (draznja), ядосвам (bg) (jadosvam)
• Chichonyi-Chidzihana-Chikauma: yuga
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 激怒 (zh) (jīnù), 刺激 (zh) (cìjī)

• Cornish: veksya
• Czech: dráždit (cs)
• Dutch: irriteren (nl)
• Esperanto: agaci (eo), malamuzi
• Finnish: ärsyttää (fi), vituttaa (fi), nyppiä (fi), tympiä (fi), harmittaa (fi), vaivata (fi)
• French: agacer (fr) (displeasure)
• Galician: irritar (gl), arrizar, tocar o carallo (vulgar)
• Georgian: გაღიზიანება (gaɣizianeba), გაბრაზება (gabrazeba)
• German: reizen (de), irritieren (de), ärgern (de)
• Greek: εκνευρίζω (el) (eknevrízo), τσαντίζω (el) (tsantízo), θυμώνω (el) (thymóno)

  Ancient: παροξύνω (paroxúnō)

• Ido: iracigar (io)
• Irish: greannaigh
• Italian: irritare (it)
• Japanese: いらいらさせる (iraira saseru), 怒らせる (ja) (いからせる, ikaraseru), じらす (ja) (jirasu)
• Ladino: inyervar
• Latin: piget, taedet
• Lithuanian: erzinti (lt), dirginti
• Malay: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: whakakūrakuraku, whakahārangirangi, mukākā, whakatōwenewene
• Middle English: noyen
• Norwegian: irritere (no), irritere (no)
• Polish: drażnić (pl), rozdrażniać, denerwować (pl), irytować (pl), sierdzić (archaic), wkurwiać (pl) (vulgar)
• Portuguese: irritar (pt)
• Romanian: irita (ro), enerva (ro), agasa (ro), sâcâi (ro)
• Russian: раздража́ть (ru) (razdražátʹ), злить (ru) impf (zlitʹ), серди́ть (ru) impf (serdítʹ)
• Spanish: irritar (es), enviscar (es)
• Swedish: irritera (sv)
• Tagalog: alibadbaran
• Turkish: kızdırmak (tr), öfkelendirmek (tr), sinirlendirmek (tr), sinir etmek, sinirini bozmak, gıcık etmek (tr), tahriş etmek (tr), kaşındırmak (tr), irite etmek
• Ukrainian: дратува́ти impf (dratuváty)

See also

• disturb
• exasperate
• peeve

Etymology 2

From Latin irritātus, past participle of irritō (“I invalidate, annul”), from irritus (“invalid”), negation of ratus (“valid, established, fixed”).

Verb

irritate (third-person singular simple present irritates, present participle irritating, simple past and past participle irritated)

1. (transitive, obsolete, Scots law) To render null and void.
   • c. 1634-1661 John Bramhall, Protestants' Ordination Defended

     Are human laws presently superfluous, so often as they do not irritate or abrogate Divine laws ?

   Synonyms: annul, nullify, invalidate

Italian

Etymology 1

Adjective

irritate

1. feminine plural of irritato

Participle

irritate f pl

1. feminine plural of irritato

Etymology 2

Verb

irritate

1. inflection of irritare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Anagrams

• arteriti, atterrii, irretita, ritirate, tiritera, triterai

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ir.riːˈtaː.te/, [ɪrːiːˈt̪äːt̪ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ir.riˈta.te/, [irːiˈt̪äːt̪e]

Verb

irrītāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of irrītō

References

• “irritate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• irritate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Spanish

Verb

irritate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of irritar combined with te