Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Causing annoyance, weariness, or vexation; tedious: irksome restrictions. See Synonyms at boring.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Wearisome; tedious; burdensome; vexatious; causing annoyance or discomfort, especially by long continuance or frequent repetition.
- Weary; uneasy.
- Synonyms Wearisome, Tedious, etc. See wearisome.
Wiktionary
- adj. Disagreeable or troublesome by reason of long continuance or repetition; bothersome; annoying; irritating; wearisome; tedious.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Wearisome; tedious; disagreeable or troublesome by reason of long continuance or repetition
- adj. obsolete Weary; vexed; uneasy.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
Etymologies
- From Middle English irkesome, irksum, equivalent to irk + -some, or from Old English weorcsum ("painful, hurtful"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Avey and Wojcicki played up the recreational aspects of 23andMe testing—broccoli taste, fast twitch muscles, and earwax consistency—because they appealed to so many people, but they found the tag irksome.”
“When Kelsch sees "irksome" open-door retailers, she goes inside and tells owners and consumers about the wasted energy.”
The Washington Post: Energy-conscious riled by stores that leave doors open and A/C on
“One tic of blogs, the MSM and commenters I find kind of irksome is the habit of thinking that "public statements" = "action" and "action" = "public statements.”
Obama: Disappointed And Frustrated Over Collapse Of Auto-Bailout
“The word "issue" -- the Darfur issue, the Iraq issue, the homelessness issue -- is kind of irksome, but it hints at a vital fact: As Americans of a certain economic status and social class, our "issues" are other people's lives.”
“Despite its enduring popularity, he has always refused to reminisce about The Likely Lads and says he finds the continuing public fascination with the series 'irksome'.”
“Antitrust suits as a means of enforcing the law, Roosevelt declared, were "irksome" and prolonged affairs.”
“Second, the 'irksome' five-star in the corner of the regional flag is soon to be a thing of the past.”
“In fact, theories are already rife regarding the relationship between Obama's choices and the support he received from the pro-Israeli lobby in Washington during the campaign, despite his 'irksome' middle name and his unsettling 'ties' to world-renowned Palestinian intellectuals Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi.”
“a kind of irksome ballast which holds down to earth a soul eager to rise aloft.”
“~ Brian Palmer: We Can Help Burma -- "The word "issue" - the Darfur issue, the Iraq issue, the homelessness issue - is kind of irksome, but it hints at a vital fact: As Americans of a certain economic status and social class, our "issues" are other people's lives.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘irksome’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 319 more...
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06-13 GRE list
churlish, unswear, abnegate, abjure, state, indemnification, adumbrated, reny, abash, recondite, rescission, esoteric and 260 more...
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Words To Use In Creative Writing
hag-ridden, light-heeled, wendigo, longshanks, fatuous, insipid, sodden, bulging, sycophantic, uncourtly, gauche, assuasive and 174 more...
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Wordplayer's Wonderful Words
chaparral, grotesque, knork, newsmonger, thitherwards, fackeltanz, kakistocracy, sforzando, compendium, frump, inquere, phosphene and 100 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 2455 more... -
GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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What Do You Mean $
ahh these hurt.....
hermit, prone, maxim, guise, solvenly, lurid, lax, amiable, irate, cloister, mediate, nettle and 100 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 1008 more...
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out of interest
lithesome, wholesome, gruesome, tiresome, worrisome, cumbersome, lonesome, loathsome, burdensome, fearsome, wearisome, irksome and 97 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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theinfonaut's Words
pithy, voraciousness, aphorism, crumple, flaneur, coquettish, grace, discriminating, oscillation, assumption, nasturtium, petiole and 90 more...
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Kavitha's Words
avarice, mellow, mahogany, serendipity, plush, vengeance, catalyst, plausible, penury, meticulous, sarcastic, ninja and 100 more...
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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
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2011 July
New words
correspondent, promulgate, transgress, trite, ravine, corespondent, contrivance, contrive, expedient, conducive, clairvoyance, difform and 184 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for irksome.

mollusque Weirdnet is irked by irksome. Oct 31, 2008