Meanings
- uncountableThe quality of being irritating.
The comet presently became annoyed and alarmed, especially as it seemed that the asbestos fibre had become lodged in its teeth with the irritatingness of a fishbone on one’s tongue.
1910 February 20, Stephen Chalmers, “The Truth About the Comet and About the Disappearance of Dr. Gook, Heer Flounder and the Truthful Author”, in The New York Times (Magazine section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Jun 2025, page 12, column 52 more examples
There is much clever character drawing, especially in the case of Mrs. Sirgood, the mother-in-law of the wavering wife. She is a masterpiece of feminine irritatingness, irritating even to read about, yet painfully true to life.
1905 May 1, The Keeper of the Review Bookshop [pseudonym], “The Review’s Bookshop”, in W[illiam] T[homas] Stead, editor, The Review of Reviews, volume XXXI, number 185, London, →OCLC, page 544, column 2We keep fairly cool up here—but you’ll have more or less to camp, help with the chores and all that. You won’t be particularly comfortable. And of course society is strictly limited. But you can always depart when you’ve had enough, and in the meantime it’s not bad. I will keep my irritatingness in bounds, I hope.
1924 July 3, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “To Witter Bynner”, in Aldous Huxley, editor, The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, published 1932, →OCLC, part 4 (December 1923–February 1930), page 620
Origin
Cite this entry
irritatingness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irritatingness
“irritatingness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irritatingness. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “irritatingness,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irritatingness.
Source: irritatingness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.