irritationn.

1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie i. xix. 33 Therefore was nothing committed to historie, but matters of great and excellent persons & things that the same by irritation of good courages..might worke more effectually.

1620 Bp. J. Hall Contempl. V. O.T. xiv. 149 If it had not beene for his proud irritation, the people had in the morning before ceased from that bloudy pursuit of their brethren.

a1859 De Quincey (Webster 1864) The whole body of the arts and sciences composes one vast machinery for the irritation and development of the human intellect.

1703 Duke of Queensberry in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. IV. 238 One sort of people are pleased, and the other have got no irritation.

1796 E. Burke Let. Dec. in Corr. (1970) IX. 162 Jacobinism which arises from Penury and irritation, from scorned loyalty, and rejected Allegiance.

1818 A. Ranken Hist. France VI. i. 58 Any new taxation..might excite general irritation.

1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) V. 6 The Lacedaemonian expresses a momentary irritation at the accusation.

1686 R. Boyle Free Enq. Notion Nature vi.223 The Fibres..being Distended or Vellicated by the Plenty or Acrimony of the Peccant Matter, will, by that Irritation, be brought to contract themselves vigorously.

1714 J. Purcell Treat. Cholick 113 Subject to the greatest Irritations, Heart-burnings, and Vomiting.

1799 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 2 126 If it allay..the cough and irritation of the lungs.

1836 A. Combe Physiol. Digestion i. v. 113 In some states of the stomach..even farinaceous food excites acrimony and irritation.

1876 R. Bartholow Pract. Treat. Materia Med. iii. 498 External irritation, utilized for the relief or cure of internal maladies, is entitled counter-irritation.

1794 E. Darwin Zoonomia I. xviii. §15. 209 We come now to those motions which depend on irritation.

1794 E. Darwin Zoonomia I. xviii. §15. 210 Not only those parts of the system, which are always excited by internal stimuli,..but the organs of sense also may be more violently excited into action by the irritation from internal stimuli, or by sensation, during our sleep than in our waking hours.

1855 A. Bain Senses & Intellect Introd. ii. 53 When irritation is applied to the hemispheres, as by pricking or cutting.

1875 A. W. Bennett & W. T. T. Dyer tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. 782 Periodic movements of the mature parts of plants and movements dependent on irritation.

1875 A. W. Bennett & W. T. T. Dyer tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. 784 In the case of irritable stamens..the insects that visit the flowers cause the irritation.

a1898 J. Caird Fund. Ideas Christianity (1899) II. xxi. 276 Irritations, and molecular changes of nervous tissue are transformed into the feeling of shimmering light or ringing sound.