What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Exasperate vs Irascible - What's the difference?

exasperate | irascible |

As adjectives the difference between exasperate and irascible

is that exasperate is exasperated; embittered while irascible is easily provoked to outbursts of anger; irritable.

As a verb exasperate

is to frustrate, vex, provoke, or annoy; to make angry.

exasperate

English

Verb

(exasperat)
  • To frustrate, vex, provoke, or annoy; to make angry.
  • * , Macbeth , act 3, sc. 6:
  • this report
    Hath so exasperate the king that he
    Prepares for some attempt of war.
  • * 1851 , , Moby Dick , ch. 3:
  • The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.
  • * 1853 , , Bleak House , ch. 11:
  • Beadle goes into various shops and parlours, examining the inhabitants; always shutting the door first, and by exclusion, delay, and general idiotcy, exasperating the public.
  • * 1987 , " Woman of the Year: Corazon Aquino," Time , 5 Jan:
  • [S]he exasperates her security men by acting as if she were protected by some invisible shield.
  • * 2007 , " Loyal Mail," Times Online (UK), 4 June (retrieved 7 Oct 2010):
  • News that Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, is set to receive a bumper bonus will exasperate postal workers.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Exasperated; embittered.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • * Elizabeth Browning
  • Like swallows which the exasperate dying year / Sets spinning.

    See also

    * exacerbate ----

    irascible

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Easily provoked to outbursts of anger; irritable.
  • * 1809 , , Knickerbocker's History of New York , ch. 16:
  • . . . the surly and irascible passions which, like belligerent powers, lie encamped around the heart.
  • * 1863 , , Hospital Sketches , ch. 1:
  • I am naturally irascible , and if I could have shaken this negative gentleman vigorously, the relief would have been immense.
  • * 1921 , , Four Years , ch. 10:
  • . . . a never idle man of great physical strength and extremely irascible —did he not fling a badly baked plum pudding through the window upon Xmas Day?
  • * 2004 Feb. 29, Daniel Kadlec, " Why He's Meanspan," Time :
  • Alan Greenspan was on an irascible roll last week, first dissing everyone who holds a fixed-rate mortgage — suckers! — and later picking on folks who collect Social Security: Get back to work, Grandma.

    Synonyms

    * cantankerous, choleric, cranky, ill-tempered, hot-tempered

    References

    * ----