Life always presents you with stimulating situations. Unfortunately, not all of them will make you happy. Some things, events, actions, and even people just straight up annoy you.
When this happens and someone asks you about it, it can be difficult to find the right name to call the object of your annoyance.
What if you are able to put a name or word to the things that annoy you? Read this article to learn about what to call things that annoy you:
Things that can annoy you can be a plague, an irritant, a joke, a menace, a drag, a peeve, a red-rag-to-a-bull. Or any of the 10 things in this list.
Read on.
1. A Plague
You can be plagued by anything from another human to your neighbor’s annoying dog who barks at your window early in the morning. You can be plagued by your boss who breathes down your neck on deliverables.
The word plague has been used to describe diseases. Though what irks you at the moment isn’t a dreadful disease, the term carries the idea that the annoying thing seems to stick around, and leaves you feeling like it’s under your skin.
And you only enjoy some respite from the presence of that thing periodically. If the annoying thing causes some physical pain, the word plague is also fitting.
If it’s your neighbor’s cat – if you’re not a cat person – that scratches at your door in the middle of the night, or that someone who won’t stop calling because they like you. Anything could plague you.
2. It’s An Irritant
Something that annoys you can also be an irritant. You can call an annoying thing an irritant if it causes physical, mental, or psychological discomfort.
Something as insignificant as a penetrating sound can be irritating and when it lingers on for long, it can constitute an irritant.
This term is especially appropriate if the annoying thing seems to follow you around, or is a ubiquitous thing like the weather. If it’s a rainy day but you need to go out, annoyed, you can refer to the rain as an irritant.
Life is filled with irritants but many of them fade into the background undertow of our lives activities because we have learned to ignore them. A few however stick out of the fabric of our realities.
3. It’s A Joke
You can also call what annoys you a joke and it wouldn’t be a misnomer. We often see people shake their heads, then we hear them say, ‘what a joke’ when expressing their disaffection about a thing, or a situation.
You can be annoyed about a thing but on account of your confusion, you don’t know what to call it so as a coping mechanism, you call it a joke.
Oftentimes situations like this involve other people; a spouse, a partner, a fellow employee, or a boss. It could also be authorities like the government.
We all encounter annoying situations every time that leaves us thinking the other party is a blockhead – that’s another name, by the way – and should have behaved better if they weren’t such a joke.
As you may know, virtually every annoying situation involves other humans. Humans are the only ones capable of jokes. Even annoying ones.
4. It’s A Menace
Something that annoys you can also be a menace. This term carries the meaning of impending danger though.
However, certain menaces don’t pose direct dangers by their mere existence around you, but their interaction with you may put you in distress.
For example, a leaking gas pipe can be a menace if you don’t change it. And if it constantly leaks after repairing it, the presence of it becomes annoying and a menace altogether.
There’s no shortage of menacing things around us. A sharp curve you have to take on your drive to work is annoying. It is also a menace considering the danger of accidents.
The city is annoying if it doesn’t fix the potholes. These potholes are annoying. The potholes and the city are both menaces.
The bank is annoying because they charge you too much on your withdrawals, they are a menace to your finances.
5. It’s A Drag
A thing that annoys you is a drag – literally so sometimes. The things that annoy you are usually burdensome too because you would like to do without them but can’t.
A task you don’t like to accomplish can be annoying, a drag perhaps because it is boring.
Watching an uninspiring movie can be annoying if someone is making you do it. It is a drag because it is an encumbrance for being there in the cinema, bits of your cells dying in your brain because the show is such a dull one that inspires no intellectual solution.
Your job can be annoying as a clerk where all you do is shuffle books, something you can do with your eyes closed. It’s also a drag because it lacks the capacity to drive you.
6. A Red Rag To A Bull
Here we inject an idiom to spice things up a little. This is a phrase that originates from bullfighting. Apparently, the bull in the fight is irked when it sees the red rag.
Every time the matador flashes the red rag the bus charges against it. In this case, you are the bull, and the annoying thing is the red rag. In bullfighting, the bull is eventually killed by the matador.
Though there’s no matador stalking behind the annoying thing, the mental distress can take a toll. The bull makes a headlong charge against its object of angst but you likely avoid something that annoys you.
This doesn’t diminish the fact that the thing is still a red flag to you. This also calls to mind the matter of red flags in romantic relationships.
Red flags are usually a source of annoyance to the person involved. You’d rather not want to date a person who goes about with a red flag.
7. It’s A Peeve
A peeve is what you call something that annoys you. This word carries the sense of being aggravated. And don’t annoying things aggravate you?
As much as possible you want the thing that annoys you either fixed or eliminated overall. Take the leaking gas pipe for example.
The minute the pipe is removed and replaced, you would likely toss the old and bad pipe in the trash. So you can call the broken pipe a peeve.
8. It’s A Swine
A strong word, this one but it drives home the point of this whole article. This thing annoys you to the point that you are on the internet searching for what to call something that annoys you.
You know the other swine which refers to a certain animal that loves soiling itself in mud. It’s what the pig and the wild boar do even when the farmer prefers not to wash them again for the rest of the day.
Things that annoy you don’t ask for your permission before they get under your skin and drive you nuts. And if the thing is a person, perhaps if they know how you feel about their attitude that annoys you, it may help them stop.
9. It’s A Bother
You can also call an annoying thing a bother. Suffice it to say that annoying things also provoke you, they bother you. Now, this term suggests that this provocation is on a different level.
This annoying thing is capable of affecting your mood, and state of mind in general. The word bother suggests being troubled in mind. It also suggests that the occurrence of annoyance isn’t a one-time thing.
10. It Is Pesky
A thing that annoys you is pesky. A pesky thing causes annoyance and makes you angry.
This word also suggests that the source of the annoyance can also be another human like you. If that is the case you can refer to the person as being pesky too.
Things can be pesky too though. For example, you can have a pesky lock in your house enough to make you feel some anxiety as you approach it.
The traffic light can constitute a pesky thing in your life if it catches you just before you go through.
A pair of running shoes can have a pesky lining, and a pair of pants can have a pesky fly or zipper. The list of pesky things can be endless.
Final Thoughts
This list of ten names you can call things that annoy you is not exhaustive. A quick check in the dictionary can yield many more nouns that you can call things that annoy you.
The precision of language is also a great way to begin conceptualizing solutions.
The more we are able to describe situations or things correctly the better we are able to design our way out of everyday difficulties.
Furthermore, you do not only use the proper appellation, but you can also avoid the things that cause annoyance.
Of course, it is impossible to avoid every single occurrence. And you can do much more in cultivating restraint when presented with annoying things.
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