irritability
(ˌɪrɪtəˈbɪlɪtɪ)
[ad. L. irrītābilitās, f. irrītābilis: see next and -ity. Cf. F. irritabilité (Haller, 1756).]
The quality or state of being irritable.
1. The quality or state of being easily annoyed or excited to anger or impatience; proneness to vexation or annoyance; petulance.
| 1791 Boswell Johnson Mar. an. 1753, The gloomy irritability of his existence was more painful to him than ever. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xvi, His second subject of conversation..seemed rather delicate for the smith's present state of irritability. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 26 The irritability of their vanity has been much exaggerated. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Shakespeare Wks. (Bohn) I. 354 The perilous irritability of poetic talent. 1881 W. Collins Bl. Robe i. vi. 205 There was not only irritability, there was contempt..in her tone. |
2. Path. Of a bodily organ or part: The condition of being excessively or morbidly excitable or sensitive to the contact or action of anything.
| 1785 Alex. Grant (title) Observations on the Use of Opium, in Diseases supposed to be owing to morbid irritability. 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 315 From a peculiar weakness, or too great an irritability of the bowels. 1875 B. Meadows Clin. Observ. 51 He is all right, save slight irritability and scurf in the scalp. |
3. Physiol. and Biol. The capacity of being excited to vital action (e.g. motion, contraction, nervous impulse, etc.) by the application of an external stimulus: a property of living matter or protoplasm in general, and characteristic in a special degree of certain organs or tissues of animals and plants, esp. muscles and nerves: see irritable 3.
| [1751 J. G. Zimmerman (title) Dissertatio Physiologica de Irritabilitate, quam publice defendet.] 1755 R. Whytt (title) Physiological Essays..On the Sensibility and Irritability of the Parts of Men and other Animals; occasioned by Dr. Haller's Treatise on these Subjects. 1788 Sir J. E. Smith in Phil. Trans. Abr. XVI. 421 (heading) On the Irritability of Vegetables. 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. IV. xlix. 349 Physicians talk of the irritability of our nervous system. 1805 A. Carlisle in Phil. Trans. XCV. 3 When muscles are capable of reiterated contractions and relaxations, they are said to be alive, or to possess irritability. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 115 Some leaves possess the property, when acted upon by certain bodies, of moving. This is called, in reference to leaves, Irritability. 1862 Darwin Fertil. Orchids v. 172 The irritability of the labellum in several distantly-allied forms is highly remarkable. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 401 Instances of that response of living matter, as a manifestation of ‘irritability’, to chemical changes in its surroundings which is denoted by the term ‘chemiotaxis’. |