annoy
/əˈnoɪ̯/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.46 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To disturb or irritate, especially by continued or repeated acts; to bother with unpleasant deeds.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—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."
- "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"
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.