ire

noun, verb — 3 senses

ire

noun

US /aɪ.ɚ/ · UK /aɪ.ə(ɹ)/

Etymology From Middle English ire, yre, from Old English īre, ȳre, īr, ȳr, shortened form of īren (“iron”). More at iron.

1

Obsolete Iron.

  • […] 'Tell I'm rud as the smith makes the pieces of ire; […]1806, Richard Polwhele, The Language, Literature, and Literary Characters of Cornwall: with Illustrations from Devonshire, page 25:
  • A ire thing, moore smart by haff, / That zeed var off 's za theene 's a laff, / An' zum zes edden' 'xac'ly saff, / Stan's in th' place ee did.1842, George Philip Rigney Pulman, Rustic Sketches; being poems on angling ... in the dialect of East Devon, page 55:

ire

verb

Etymology From Middle English ire, from Old French ire (“ire”), from Latin īra (“wrath, rage”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eysh₂- (“to fall upon, act sharply”) (compare Old English ofost (“haste, zeal”), Old Norse eisa (“to race forward”), Ancient Greek ἱερός (hierós, “supernatural, holy”), οἶστρος (oîstros, “frenzy; gadfly”), Avestan 𐬀𐬈𐬯𐬨𐬀 (aesma, “anger”), Sanskrit इष् f (iṣ, “refreshment, strength”)). Compare also Middle English irre, erre (“anger, wrath”), from Old English yrre, ierre, eorre (“anger, wrath”).

1

Rare To anger, to irritate.

  • It doesn't tire a man to put down a carpet so much as it ires him.1880, Gleason's Monthly Companion, page 287:
  • I heard enough from the gentleman who has just taken his seat, and from my friend, Dr. Caldwell, to ire me just a little bit.1915, Dr. Duncan Eve of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, in the Southern Medical Journal, volume 4, page 279
4 more examples
  • “You have enemies. Is that why you have chosen to leave at this time?” It ired me that he should think so, but I held my peace, and when I spoke at last, my voice was mild.1962, Louis L'Amour, Lando, page 3:
  • Only one employee testified as to the interrogation. This was Mary Farley who testified that at the time the research interviewer reached her home she was entertaining company and that she was “ired” by the interruption.1968, “H. P. Wasson and Company”, in Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, volume 170, page 298:
  • Mr. Gray (Bonaventure–Îles-de-la-Madeleine): Mr. Speaker, [...] Having been in the House of Commons for seven and one-half years and regardless of political stripe, the thing that angers and ires me the most is to hear downtown metro people talking […]1992 03, Canadian House of Commons, House of Commons Debates, volume 7, page 8115:
  • […]to give up anorexia. Everyone else deserves their food; it ires me to no end—couldn't write “pissed off,” too juvenile—to hear other girls say, “I shouldn't be eating this.” Shut up, I want to say, you're fucking gorgeous.2001 August 1, Xan Nowakowski, Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 104:
Derived terms
irable

ire

noun

Etymology From Middle English ire, from Old French ire (“ire”), from Latin īra (“wrath, rage”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eysh₂- (“to fall upon, act sharply”) (compare Old English ofost (“haste, zeal”), Old Norse eisa (“to race forward”), Ancient Greek ἱερός (hierós, “supernatural, holy”), οἶστρος (oîstros, “frenzy; gadfly”), Avestan 𐬀𐬈𐬯𐬨𐬀 (aesma, “anger”), Sanskrit इष् f (iṣ, “refreshment, strength”)). Compare also Middle English irre, erre (“anger, wrath”), from Old English yrre, ierre, eorre (“anger, wrath”).

1

Great anger; wrath; keen resentment.

  • to raise the ire of someone
  • She lik'd not his desire; Fain would be free but dreadeth parents irea. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:
4 more examples
  • If I digg'd up thy forefathers graves, And hung their rotten coffins up in chains, It could not slake mine ire, nor ease my heart.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
  • Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long Perplex'd the Greek and Cytherea's son.1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
  • For this th' avenging Pow'r employs his darts; / And empties all his quiver in our hearts; / Thus will perſiſt, relentleſs in his ire, / Till the fair ſlave be render'd to her ſire: [...]a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The First Book of Homer’s Ilias”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 419:
  • News of this notice from the university was picked up by local media and had the effect of raising the ire of some citizens who saw this as an attack on ‘Chinese heritage’, which in turn resulted in a rapid apology from the university[.]2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 3:
Related terms
irascibility, irascible, irate, ireful

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.