IRRITATION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Irritation

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/ˌɪrɪtˈeɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Irritation n.

The act of irritating, or exciting, or the state of being irritated; excitement; stimulation, usually of an undue and uncomfortable kind; especially, excitement of anger or passion; provocation; annoyance; anger. "The whole body of the arts and sciences composes one vast machinery for the irritation and development of the human intellect."

(Physiol.) The act of exciting, or the condition of being excited to action, by stimulation; as, the condition of an organ of sense, when its nerve is affected by some external body; esp., the act of exciting muscle fibers to contraction, by artificial stimulation; as, the irritation of a motor nerve by electricity; also, the condition of a muscle and nerve, under such stimulation.

(Med.) A condition of morbid excitability or oversensitiveness of an organ or part of the body; a state in which the application of ordinary stimuli produces pain or excessive or vitiated action.

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Etymology of 'Irritation'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Irritation" Quotes from Famous Books

... for increasing efficiency and promotion. The office has its hardships. Everything is on a business basis, and there is little allowance for feelings or disposition. There are days when trials multiply and an atmosphere of irritation prevails; there are seasons when the constant rush creates a wearing nervous tension, and other seasons, when business is so poor that occasionally there are breakdowns of health or moral rectitude; but on the whole the office presents a simpler industrial problem ...

— Society - Its Origin and Development • Henry Kalloch Rowe

... built, handsome man of thirty, so soldierly in bearing that it needed not the buff epaulets and facings to show his captain's rank in the Continental army. Yet there was something in his facial expression that contradicted the manliness of his presence,—an irritation and querulousness that were inconsistent with his size and strength. This fretfulness increased as the moments went by without sign or motion in the faintly lit field beyond, until, in peevish exasperation, he began to kick the nearer stones ...

— Thankful Blossom • Bret Harte

... securing alliances with the Indians and inciting them to hostilities against the English. But so rapidly were the settlers advancing that often the land could not be purchased fast enough to prevent irritation and ill feeling. The Scotch-Irish and Germans, it has already been noted, settled on lands without the formality of purchase from the Indians. The Government, when the Indians complained, sometimes ejected the settlers but more often hastened to purchase from the Indians the land which ...

— The Quaker Colonies - A Chronicle of the Proprietors of the Delaware, Volume 8 - in The Chronicles Of America Series • Sydney G. Fisher

... to begin suit appealing from the governor's appointments; and he likewise appealed and brought suit against some of those to whom the governors made grants, on the ground that they were against decrees and the instructions of the governor. This was a fruitful source of irritation, the governors declaring that the offices are thus granted for the good of your Majesty's service, although it appears that the appointees are making gain of them. Since that which has occurred and that which may occur is of moment, your Majesty will ordain according ...

— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XIV., 1606-1609 • Various

... seemed stronger, when he was thoroughly awake. His lordship's bilious and hepatic complaints seemed alone not equal to the expected mournful event; his long want of sleep, whether the consequence of the irritation in the bowels, or, which is more probable, of causes of a different kind, accounts for his loss of strength, and for his death, very sufficiently. Though his lordship wished his approaching dissolution not to be lingering, ...

— Lives of the Poets: Gay, Thomson, Young, and Others • Samuel Johnson

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