irritative

American  

[ir-i-tey-tiv] / ˈɪr ɪˌteɪ tɪv /

adjective

1. serving or tending to irritate.

2. Pathology. characterized or produced by irritation of some body part.

   an irritative fever.

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Other Word Forms

• irritativeness noun
• unirritative adjective

Etymology

Origin of irritative

First recorded in 1680–90; irritate + -ive

Example Sentences

"We are recording a surge in the number of irritative bronchitis infections," Jugal Kishore, the head of the medicine department at the city's Safdarjung Hospital, told PTI news agency.

From BBC • Nov. 2, 2023

Those things, which preserve in their natural state the due exertions of all the irritative motions, are termed nutrientia; they produce the growth, and restore the waste, of the system.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus

During the remainder of the intermission the pulse may be normal, or it may continue accelerated in consequence of some irritative condition; as the time for the relapse approaches it frequently again becomes abnormally slow.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

It is of course diagnosticated without difficulty from the sporadic catarrhal fevers, which lack the characteristic depression, neuralgic and rheumatoid pains, the irritative cough, dyspnoea, and so on.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

When present, they are incomplete, and are chiefly irritative in character.

From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Miles, Alexander