ANNOYING

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does annoying mean? 

• ANNOYING (noun)
  The noun ANNOYING has 1 sense:

1. the act of troubling or annoying someone

  Familiarity information: ANNOYING used as a noun is very rare.

• ANNOYING (adjective)
  The adjective ANNOYING has 1 sense:

1. causing irritation or annoyance

  Familiarity information: ANNOYING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ANNOYING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of troubling or annoying someone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

annoyance; annoying; irritation; vexation

Hypernyms ("annoying" is a kind of...):

mistreatment (the practice of treating (someone or something) badly)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "annoying"):

exasperation (actions that cause great irritation (or even anger))

red flag (something that irritates or demands immediate action)

• ANNOYING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Causing irritation or annoyance

Synonyms:

annoying; bothersome; galling; irritating; nettlesome; pesky; pestering; pestiferous; plaguey; plaguy; teasing; vexatious; vexing

Context example:

it is vexing to have to admit you are wrong

Similar:

disagreeable (not to your liking)

 Context examples 

It is very annoying, for I do not see how I am to shave, unless in my watch-case or the bottom of the shaving-pot, which is fortunately of metal.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

M. Krempe had now commenced an eulogy on himself, which happily turned the conversation from a subject that was so annoying to me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“A most annoying business, Sherlock,” said he.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Although it can be annoying, coughing helps your body heal or protect itself.

(Cough, NIH)

Mercury retrograde can be annoying at times, but it has an upside, too.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Scientists have solved the riddle behind one of the most recognisable, and annoying, household sounds: the dripping tap.

(What causes the sound of a dripping tap – and how do you stop it?, University of Cambridge)

It’s very annoying, though, Watson.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Their next business is from herbs, minerals, gums, oils, shells, salts, juices, sea-weed, excrements, barks of trees, serpents, toads, frogs, spiders, dead men’s flesh and bones, birds, beasts, and fishes, to form a composition, for smell and taste, the most abominable, nauseous, and detestable, they can possibly contrive, which the stomach immediately rejects with loathing, and this they call a vomit; or else, from the same store-house, with some other poisonous additions, they command us to take in at the orifice above or below (just as the physician then happens to be disposed) a medicine equally annoying and disgustful to the bowels; which, relaxing the belly, drives down all before it; and this they call a purge, or a clyster.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)