The AI-powered English dictionary
(uncountable) The Gaelic language indigenous to Ireland, also known as Irish Gaelic. examples
(as plural) The Irish people. quotations examples
America used to love dams... Yes, and we built those dams with ingenuity and brawn and, of course, piles and piles of dead Irish.
2015 March 1, “Infrastructure”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 2, episode 4, John Oliver (actor), via HBO
A surname. examples
countable and uncountable, plural Irish or Irishes
(uncountable, obsolete) A board game of the tables family.
(uncountable, US) Temper; anger, passion. quotations examples
But her Irish was up too high to do any thing with her, and so I quit trying.
1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Nebraska, published 1987, page 65
Whenever he got his Irish up, Clancy lowered the boom.
1947, Hy Heath, John Lange, Clancy Lowered the Boom
The Priest is as fierce a fighter as I am when he gets his Irish up.
1997, Andrew M. Greeley, Irish Lace, page 296
(countable, uncountable) Whiskey, or whisky, elaborated in Ireland. quotations examples
Harris said he'd had enough oratory for one night, and proposed that we should go out and have a smile, saying that he had found a place, round by the square, where you could really get a drop of Irish worth drinking.
1889, Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat […]
comparative more Irish, superlative most Irish
Pertaining to or originating from Ireland or the Irish people. quotations examples
A. Fink-Nottle: But it's absolute balderdash, Bertie. I mean, listen to this: "Sure and begorrah, I don't know what's after being the matter with you, Michael." I mean, what on earth is this "what's after being" stuff mean?B.W. Wooster: My dear old Gussie, that is how people think Irish people talk.
1992 April 26, “Hot Off the Press”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 5
Pertaining to the Irish language. examples
(derogatory) nonsensical, daft or complex. quotations examples
The slur continued with Irish confetti, a popular term for paving stones or Belgian bricks that were laid in New York streets beginning about 1832.
1995, Irving Lewis Allen, The City in Slang: New York Life and Popular Speech