Meanings
irk1
present singular third person irks · participle present irking · participle past irked · past irked
- transitiveto irritate; annoy; bother
It irks me doing all this work and have someone wreck it.
1 more example
Let no man pray to Māna-Yood-Sushāī, for who shall trouble Māna with mortal woes or irk him with the sorrows of all the houses of Earth?
1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC
plural irks
- An annoyance.
The trade-off between computation cost and precision results in tuning parameters […] being exposed to the user, a major irk to practitioners of data science.
2022, Philipp Hennig, Michael A. Osborne, Hans P. Kersting, Probabilistic Numerics, page 13
Irk2
- A river in Greater Manchester, England, which joins the River Irwell in Manchester city centre.
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*werǵ-“to work”
- Proto-Germanic*wurkijaną“to work”
- Old Norseyrkja“to work”
- Middle Englishirken“to tire, grow weary”
- Englishirk
Inherited from Middle English irken (“to tire, grow weary”), from Old Norse yrkja (“to work”), from Proto-Germanic *wurkijaną (“to work”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to work”). Cognate with Icelandic yrkja (“to compose”), Swedish yrka (“to urge, argue”), Old English wyrċan (“to work”). Doublet of work.
More words from Middle English, Old Norse, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian безпокоя, смущавам
- безпокоя (bezpokoja)to irritate; annoy; bother
- смущавам (smuštavam)to irritate; annoy; bother
- досаждам (dosaždam)to irritate; annoy; bother
Czech rozčilovat, štvát
- rozčilovatto irritate; annoy; bother
- štvátto irritate; annoy; bother
- dopalovatto irritate; annoy; bother
Finnish ärsyttää
- ärsyttääto irritate; annoy; bother
French agacer, irriter
- agacerto irritate; annoy; bother
- irriterto irritate; annoy; bother
German ärgern
- ärgernto irritate; annoy; bother
Hungarian bosszant
- bosszantto irritate; annoy; bother
Italian infastidire, irritare
- infastidireto irritate; annoy; bother
- irritareto irritate; annoy; bother
- seccareto irritate; annoy; bother
Latin piget, taedet
- pigetto irritate; annoy; bother
- taedetto irritate; annoy; bother
Māori hakirara, whakahōhā
- hakirarato irritate; annoy; bother
- whakahōhāto irritate; annoy; bother
- whakakūrakurakuto irritate; annoy; bother
- rangirangito irritate; annoy; bother
- whakatōweneweneto irritate; annoy; bother
Norwegian irritere, plage
- irritereto irritate; annoy; bother
- plageto irritate; annoy; bother
Polish drażnić
- drażnićto irritate; annoy; bother
Portuguese aborrecer
- aborrecerto irritate; annoy; bother
Russian раздража́ть
- раздража́ть (razdražátʹ)to irritate; annoy; bother
Spanish fastidiar, molestar
- fastidiarto irritate; annoy; bother
- molestarto irritate; annoy; bother
- irritarto irritate; annoy; bother
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with irk
Anagrams
Cite this entry
irk. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irk
“irk.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irk. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “irk,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irk.
Source: irk on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.