irk
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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irksimple
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irkssimple
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have irkedperfect
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has irkedperfect
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am irkingprogressive
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are irkingprogressive
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is irkingprogressive
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have been irkingperfect progressive
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has been irkingperfect progressive
Past
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irkedsimple
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had irkedperfect
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was irkingprogressive
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were irkingprogressive
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had been irkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of irk
1300–50; Middle English irken to grow tired, tire < Old Norse yrkja to work, cognate with Old English wyrcan; see work
Explanation
The verb irk means "annoy," so if the incessant barking of your next door neighbor's pug is driving you crazy, you can say that the noise irks you. Being irked is an individual thing — what drives you crazy might be something your friend doesn't even notice. For example, it might irk your grammarian friend every time he hears someone says "ain't," but other people don't mind it. The earliest version of the word irk, irken, meant "to feel weary or tired," but it later came to mean "to tire of or to be disgusted with."
Vocabulary lists containing irk
English Words Derived from Old Norse
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It is a rhetoric likely to irk bondholders.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
The overlapping of certain topics might irk certain viewers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
That he didn’t get to play a March Madness game will irk him for the rest of his life, Bronny James said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2026
As the days wore on, stray comments started to irk him.
From Salon ● Jan. 7, 2025
Sahil shifted beside me, probably not used to being so close to Hannah’s irk.
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
Mark Joseph Stern: This is what irks me the most about Roberts’ opinion in Slaughter.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
It irks people when they buy milk but gets scant attention when they buy stocks, unless it’s about handicapping what the Fed’s next rate move might be.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
And her not seeming to understand how rude she was behaving really irks me.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 28, 2025
Take 2008’s “Happy-Go-Lucky” about a perennial optimist whose cheery disposition irks everyone around her; or 1996’s “Secrets & Lies,” a tale of hidden secrets and — you guessed it! — lies.
From Salon ● Jan. 10, 2025
It irks me when I am by my lone.”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
But on Wednesday the digital sphere will take centre stage, with some European G7 members wanting more security in moves that have irked the United States.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
Hegseth was also reportedly irked by Phelan communicating directly on the matter with Trump, which Hegseth took to be a slight.
From Salon ● May 1, 2026
Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, who remains irked by Moreno branding the team with a Los Angeles name, has been a season-ticket holder far longer than she has been mayor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2026
But it was the removal of wartime leader Churchill that particularly irked politicians.
From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2026
What irked me was the ceaseless talk and no acdon.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
Moffett said that, in the old days, television channels didn’t have to worry about irking customers with rising costs, because that relationship was handled by a middleman — the cable companies.
From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026
He met his wife, Rebecca, at a wedding in 1992 that he attended as a friend’s plus one, irking her by interrupting her conversation with the bride.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
The head of German auto industry group VDA decried the EU parliament's decision, saying it sent a "devastating sign" and risked irking Mercosur countries.
From Barron's ● Jan. 21, 2026
Green Day rang in the new year by irking the richest man in the world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2024
Not two hours altogether of such intercourse had been his, but it had been enough to infuse all his consciousness with a vague but irking discontent.
From The Destroying Angel by Vance, Louis Joseph
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.