Word.ws English Dictionary

irritate

/ˈɪɹ.ɪˌteɪt/

irritate verb: to provoke impatience, anger, or displeasure in.

Verb (1)

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.
    • If thou irritatest my lord, there will come to war against thee all the Getulians, Numidians, and Garamantes, Afric contains.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...
    • Thou scandalizest me and irritatest my nature as much as it possibly can be irritated.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)...
    Antonyms:
    placate, please, soothe
  2. (intransitive) To cause or induce displeasure or irritation.
    Synonyms:
    abrade, chafe, grate, rankle
  3. (transitive) To induce pain in (all or part of a body or organism).

Verb (2)

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

  1. (obsolete, transitive, Scots law) To render null and void.
    • Are human laws presently superfluous, so often as they do not irritate or abrogate Divine laws ?c. 1634-1661 John Bramhall, Protestants' Ordination Defended

irritate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

irritate in Hindi

to cause or induce displeasure or irritation
चिढ़ाना ciṛhānā

irritate in Tamil

எரிச்சல் உண்டாக்கு, உறுத்து

irritate in Urdu

چھیڑنا, غصہ دلانا, کھٹکنا, تیز کرنا

irritate in Bengali

to cause or induce displeasure or irritation
জ্বালাতন করা jalaton kora, সাতানো satano
More languagesFewer languages
irritate in Malayalam
പ്രകോപിപ്പിക്കുക, അസ്വസ്ഥതയുണ്ടാക്കുക, ക്ഷോഭിക്കുക, വെറിപിടിക്കുക
irritate in Kannada
ರೇಗಿಸು, ಕಿರುಕುಳ ಕೊಡು, ಪೀಡಿಸು, ಉಪದ್ರವ ಕೊಡು
irritate in Odia
ଚାଳିବା cāḷibā
irritate in Sanskrit
मिच्छति miccháti
irritate in Tagalog
alibadbaran
irritate in Thai
ทำให้หงุดหงิด

Examples of irritate in a sentence

  • I think in general, it irritates me when straight people are allies and proclaim their straighthood.
  • Liquid and gel-type make-up removers are less likely to irritate your eyes than oil-based products.
  • Sometimes guys with BPH who strain to pee irritate their pelvic floor, leading them to develop prostatitis, too.

All 10 example sentences with irritate

Synonyms of irritate

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of irritate

Forms of irritate

third-person singular presentirritates
present participleirritating
past participleirritated
pastirritated

Past tense of irritate: irritated

Origin of irritate

Borrowed from Latin irrītātus, perfect passive participle of irrītō (“excite, irritate, incite, stimulate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Borrowed from Latin irritātus, perfect passive participle of irritō (“to invalidate, render void, annul”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from irritus (“invalid”), the equivalent of in- + ratus (“valid, established, fixed”).

Words formed from irritate

Questions about irritate

What does irritate mean?
Irritate means to provoke impatience, anger, or displeasure in.
What is irritate in Hindi?
Irritate in Hindi is चिढ़ाना (ciṛhānā). See Irritate meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is irritate?
Irritate is a verb.
How do you pronounce irritate?
Irritate is pronounced /ˈɪɹ.ɪˌteɪt/.
What is the past tense of irritate?
The past tense of irritate is irritated.

Words near irritate in the dictionary

  1. irritancies
  2. irritancy
  3. irritant
  4. irritants
  5. irritatable
  6. irritate
  7. irritated
  8. irritatedly
  9. irritates
  10. irritateth
  11. irritating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: irritate (page history and authors); irritate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); irritate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); irritate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); irritate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ଚାଳିବା (Odia) (page history and authors); मिच्छति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “irritate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/irritate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.