/əˈnɔɪ/
OriginFrom Middle English anoyen, from Old French anoier (“to bother, disturb”), from Late Latin inodiāre (“to make loathsome”), derived from Latin odium (“loathing, hatred”). Displaced native Old English dreċċan, gremman.
- transitiveTo disturb or irritate, especially by continued or repeated acts; to bother with unpleasant deeds.
“Marc loved his sister, but when she annoyed him he wanted to switch her off.”
“Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings, / This painted child of dirt that stinks and stings; / Whose buzz the witty and the fair annoys, / Yet wit ne'er tastes, and beauty ne'r enjoys.”
“You Klaestrons are allies of the Cardassians; your knowledge of the station confirms that they must have given you the layouts. Which not only compromises Bajoran security, but also... annoys us.”
- intransitiveTo do something to upset or anger someone; to be troublesome.
- archaic, transitiveTo molest; to harm; to injure.
“to annoy an army by impeding its march, or by a cannonade”
“tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-coloured, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them”
“Say, what can more our tortured souls annoy / Than to behold, admire, and lose our joy?”
- archaic, literaryA feeling of discomfort or vexation caused by what one dislikes.
“VVe that ſuffer long anoy / Are contented vvith a thought / Through an idle fancie vvrought / O let my ioyes have ſome abiding.”
“[I]f she says he was defeated, why he had better, a great deal, have been defeated, than give her a moment's annoy.”
- archaic, literaryThat which causes such a feeling.
“Sleepe in Peace, and wake in Ioy, / Good Angels guard thee from the Boares annoy […]”
“The home far and away, the distance where lives joy, / The cure, at once and ever, of world and world's annoy; […]”
Formsannoys(present, singular, third-person) · annoying(participle, present) · annoyed(participle, past) · annoyed(past) · annoys(plural)