Enraging

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. To elicit feelings of strong annoyance or agitation in a person
2. To invoke severe irritation or anger in an individual due to a specific action or situation
3. Producing a powerful emotional response of anger and frustration in someone

Etymology: The verb "enrage" comes from Old French "enrager," built from "rage" with the prefix "en-," which turns a noun into a verb meaning roughly "to put into a rage." Put simply, to enrage someone is to drive them into rage, and the "en-" prefix does the work of that transformation. The same pattern appears in English words like "enable" and "encourage." "Enraging" is the form that carries the sense of something that provokes that state, as in an enraging delay or an enraging remark. Because it is built directly from "enrage" and its participle ending, the word needs no separate history of its own; its meaning follows from the verb's sense of stirring up rage.

Synonyms: infuriating, irritating, exasperating, provoking, vexing

Antonyms: calming, soothing, appeasing, mollifying, pacifying