To irk means to annoy or irritate someone in a persistent, nagging way. When something irks you, it bothers you like a pebble in your shoe: not painful exactly, but impossible to ignore and increasingly frustrating.

Being irked is different from being furious. If your brother destroys your science project, you'd be angry. But if he keeps clicking his pen during your homework time, that irks you. The sound itself is small, but it grates on your nerves. Teachers might be irked by students who constantly interrupt. You might be irked by a friend who always shows up late, or by the way your jacket zipper keeps getting stuck.

The feeling of being irked builds over time. One pencil tap might not bother you, but the twentieth tap in five minutes? That irks you. Things that irk us reveal what we find important: a neat person is irked by clutter, while a punctual person is irked by delays.