Annoy
Pronunciation
- IPA: /əˈnɔɪ/
- Rhymes: -ɔɪ
Origin
From Middle English annoien, anoien, enoien, from Anglo-Norman anuier, Old French enuier ("to molest, harm, tire"), from Late Latin inodiÅ ("cause aversion, make hateful", vb..), from the phrase in odiÅ ("hated"), from Latin odium ("hatred"). Displaced native Middle English grillen ("to annoy, irritate"), from Old English grillan (see grill).
Full definition of annoy
Verb
- (transitive) To disturb or irritate, especially by continued or repeated acts; to bother with unpleasant deeds.
- PriorSay, what can more our tortured souls annoy
Than to behold, admire, and lose our joy? - 2013-05-25, No hiding place, In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketingâ€â€”junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion†into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.
- Marc loved his sister, but when she annoyed him he wanted to switch her off.
- (intransitive) To do something to upset or anger someone; to be troublesome.Connie liked to annoy her brother by using him as a leg rest.
- (transitive) To molest; to harm; to injure.to annoy an army by impeding its march, or by a cannonade
- Evelyntapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-coloured, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them
Antonyms
Related terms
Noun
annoy
(plural annoys)- (now rare, literary) A feeling of discomfort or vexation caused by what one dislikes.
- 1532 (first printing), Geoffrey Chaucer, The Romaunt of the Rose:I merveyle me wonder faste
How ony man may lyve or laste
In such peyne and such brennyng,
... In such annoy contynuely. - 1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sciety and Solitude:if she says he was defeated, why he had better a great deal have been defeated, than give her a moment's annoy.
- (now rare, literary) That which causes such a feeling.
Synonyms
- both senses annoyance