Irk — A Vocabulary Story
The Tune That Would Not Stop
Ahmed had a tune stuck in his head. It was only four notes long, and it went up, down, up, and then up a bit more. He had been humming it since breakfast.
By the middle of the morning, it had begun to irk his big sister Layla.
Irk means to annoy or irritate someone.
"Ahmed," she said, not looking up from her book, "please stop."
"Stop what?"
"The humming."
Ahmed had not known he was humming. He shut his mouth. A moment later the tune leaked out through his teeth instead.
Layla put her book down. "That is even worse."
He tried whistling it, to get it out of his system. That irked her more. He tried tapping it on the table with a spoon. Layla took the spoon away and hid it in the fridge, which is not where spoons go.
"It is not my fault," said Ahmed. "The tune wants out."
"Then let it out somewhere else," said Layla.
So he went into the yard and hummed it to the washing. He hummed it to the fence. He hummed it to a sparrow, which flew away, clearly irked as well.
When he came back inside, his mouth was tired and his head was quiet at last. He sat down beside Layla and picked up a comic.
The kitchen was peaceful. Their mum was chopping onions. The fridge hummed, as fridges do.
Then, very softly, from behind Layla's book, came four notes. Up, down, up, and up a bit more.
Ahmed grinned. "Now who is being irksome?"
Layla threw a cushion at him, and missed, and hummed it again anyway.
Word Definition
irk
meaning
to annoy or irritate someone
synonyms
annoy · irritate · bother · vex · aggravate
antonyms
please · delight
example sentence
It began to irk me that he was always late.