Meaning & use
annoy
Last updated
UK/əˈnɔɪ/
US/əˈnɔɪ/
Meaning
verbtransitive
To make someone feel slightly angry or impatient, usually by doing something that keeps bothering them.
Grammar: Always takes a person as the object: the noise annoys me, not the noise annoys.
Patterns
- annoy someone
- annoy someone by doing something
- it annoys someone that something happens
It really annoys me when people talk during a film.
My little brother annoys everyone by humming at dinner.
Stop tapping your pen; you are starting to annoy the others.
Word forms
| third person singular | annoys |
|---|---|
| past tense | annoyed |
| past participle | annoyed |
| -ing form | annoying |
Common combinations
- annoy someone deliberately
- He chewed loudly just to annoy his sister deliberately.
- annoy the neighbors
- Late-night music will annoy the neighbors.
- annoy someone to death
- The constant questions nearly annoyed her to death.
- be annoyed at something
- I was annoyed at the long delay.
- be annoyed with someone
- She was annoyed with him for forgetting.
- easily annoyed
- He gets easily annoyed when he is hungry.
Synonyms and how they differ
- irritate
- Irritate is very close but suggests a more steady, nagging effect, and also fits skin or eyes.
- bother
- Bother is gentler and often means interrupt or trouble someone, not necessarily make them angry.
- infuriate
- Infuriate is far stronger and means to make someone extremely angry.
- irk
- Irk is slightly formal or literary and implies a small but real vexation.
Opposites
Word family
Practice
My roommate's loud chewing really ___ me.
Choose one answer.
The subject is a singular noun phrase, so the present simple needs the -s form annoys. Annoy lacks the third person ending, and annoying or is annoy are ungrammatical here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “annoy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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