irksome

From Middle English irkesome, irksum, equivalent to irk +‎ -some, or perhaps continuing (in altered form) from Old English weorcsum (“painful, hurtful”).

• (rhotic) enPR: ûrk'səm, IPA^(key): /ˈɜɹksəm/
• (non-rhotic) IPA^(key): /ˈɜːksəm/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ksəm
• Hyphenation: irk‧some

irksome (comparative more irksome, superlative most irksome)

1. Marked by irritation or annoyance; disagreeable; troublesome by reason of long continuance or repetition

   Synonyms: bothersome, annoying, irritating, wearisome, tedious; see also Thesaurus:wearisome

   He has this irksome habit of racing up to red lights, so he has to brake heavily.

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 235:

     The young Spaniard had been in many situations of greater difficulty, but in none more irksome.

   • 2003 February 17, Elissa Gootman, “A Chill Most Bitter: Learning to Accept Hat Hair”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 27 May 2015:

     But winter can also be judged by the prominence of another scourge, one that is especially irksome in a city that places a premium on being well-groomed and immaculately coiffed: hat hair.

   • 2025 June 2, Adrian Horton, “Tech-bro satire Mountainhead is an insufferable disappointment”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Like the irksome climate-change satire Don’t Look Up, directed by Succession executive producer Adam McKay, the exaggerated hijinks of Mountainhead reveal a deep self-assurance of its politics that border on smug.

• irk

• kirsome, smokier