| 释义 |
irritable, a.|ˈɪrɪtəb(ə)l|
[ad. L. irrītābilis, f. irrītāre irritate v.1: see -ble. Cf. F. irritable (1547 in Hatz.–Darm.).]
Capable of being irritated; susceptible of irritation.
1. Readily excited to anger or impatience; easily ruffled or annoyed.
1662H. More Philos. Writ. Pref. Gen. 10 It could never enter into my minde that he was either irritable or propitiable by the omitting or performing of any mean and insignificant services. 1779–81Johnson L.P., Pope Wks. IV. 101 He was irritable and resentful. 1841Elphinstone Hist. Ind. II. 47 His ill health made him more suspicious and irritable than ever. 1877Erichsen Surg. I. 5 Persons of an irritable and anxious mind do not bear operations so well as those of a more tranquil mental constitution. 1879F. W. Robinson Coward Consc. i. xi, I have lived in..the irritablest of families.
2. a. Readily excited to action; highly responsive to stimulus; (of a bodily organ or part), Excessively or morbidly excitable or sensitive (see irritate v.1 3).
1791Burke App. Whigs Wks. VI. 8 Accused of provoking irritable power to new excesses. 1800Med. Jrnl. IV. 78 When its excretion is by any means obstructed, it produces insensible and irritable constitutions. 1804Abernethy Surg. Obs. 59 The destruction of the irritable decayed surface [of a tooth]. 1875B. Meadows Clin. Observ. 27 He had an irritable stomach and was..much annoyed with acidity. 1885H. James Little Tour in France xxxiv. 220 Our modern nerves, our irritable sympathies, our easy discomforts and fears, make one think (in some relations) less respectfully of human nature. 1887J. H. Ewing Dandel. Clocks 13 One cannot help having an irritable brain, which rides an idea to the moon and home again..whilst some folks are getting the harness of words on to its back. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 751 The tongue is slightly furred or is red and irritable looking.
b. irritable heart, a syndrome characterized by shortness of breath on exertion, palpitation, fatigue, chest pain, and dizziness, and believed to be psychosomatic; ‘soldier's heart’.
1864J. M. Da Costa Med. Diagn. iv. 280 These statements are not intended to be final. They are but a very short summary of the results of a large number of observations which I have had an opportunity of making on these cases of ‘irritable heart’, and which elsewhere..will be laid before the profession. 1922[see cardiological adj. s.v. cardio-]. 1971Conn & Horwitz Cardiac & Vascular Dis. I. xxiv. 600/1 This condition has been known by many names, such as irritable heart, soldier's heart, disordered action of the heart, functional heart disease, effort syndrome, and neurocirculatory asthenia.
3. Physiol. and Biol. Of an organ, tissue, etc. of an animal or plant: Capable of being excited to vital action by the application of some physical stimulus; said esp. of muscles and nerves, as subject respectively to contraction and to motor or sensory impulse under the influence of the proper external forces.
1793Beddoes Calculus, etc. 181 The irritable fibres in the same system have not all the same degree of irritability. They have different degrees of capacity for the irritable principle. 1875Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 784 In a smaller number of instances periodically motile foliage-leaves..are irritable to touch or concussion. 1878Foster Phys. iii. i. 394 A sensory nerve in its simplest form may be regarded as a strand of eminently irritable protoplasm.
Add:[2.] c. irritable bowel syndrome, a condition of unknown aetiology which is often associated with stress, anxiety, or depression and which is characterized by recurrent abdominal pain and constipation or diarrhoea; spastic colon. Also ellipt. as irritable bowel.
[1929Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 24 Aug. 592/1 The term ‘irritable colon’ has been used to define a condition in which the musculoneural apparatus of the colon has lost its coordination and correlated function.] 1943W. C. Alvarez Nervousness, Indigestion, & Pain xx. 319 (heading) The irritable bowel syndrome commonly called mucous or spastic colitis. Ibid. 321 For all this, it would seem highly desirable that we physicians discard the term mucous or spastic colitis, and use instead the term irritable or sensitive bowel. 1967Amer. Jrnl. Gastroenterol. XLVII. 427 Lactase deficiency, one of the more recent discoveries, has explained the etiology and the treatment of one group of patients formerly included in the irritable bowel syndrome. 1978Lancet 9 Sept. 558/1 Many normal people have changes in colonic motor activity and abdominal symptoms when under stress... However, the reaction may be more severe in irritable-bowel patients. 1985Scand. Jrnl. Gastroenterol. XX. Suppl. cix. 107 About five per cent of the adult population each year will see their doctor with complaints that are finally characterised as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). |