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Allin

annoy

verbnounattested in dialogue

  • //əˈnoɪ̯//
  • /[əˈnoɪ̯]/
  • //əˈnɔɪ̯//
  • /[əˈnɔɪ̯]/

To disturb or irritate, especially by continued or repeated acts; to bother with unpleasant deeds.

verb

  1. 1

    To 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.

  2. 2

    archaicTo 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?

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Italic *en Proto-Italic *en- Latin in- Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed-der. Proto-Italic *odjom Latin odium Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Late Latin inodiāre Old French enoiierbor. Middle English anoyen English annoy From 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.

noun

  1. 1

    archaicA 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.

  2. 2

    archaicThat 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; […]

Etymology

From Middle English anoy, from Old French enui. Doublet of ennui.

Forms

plural
annoys
past tense
annoyed
past participle
annoyed
present participle
annoying
third person singular
annoys
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).