"Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings, / This painted child of dirt that stinks and stings; / Whose buzz the witty and the fair annoys, / Yet wit ne'er tastes, and beauty ne'r enjoys."
— 1735, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot:
"You Klaestrons are allies of the Cardassians; your knowledge of the station confirms that they must have given you the layouts. Which not only compromises Bajoran security, but also... annoys us."
— 1993, D.C. Fontana, Peter Allan Fields, “Dax”, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 1, episode 8, spoken by Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor):
"In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters."
— 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
"tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-coloured, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them"
— 1644 December 2 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 23 November 1644]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:
"Say, what can more our tortured souls annoy / Than to behold, admire, and lose our joy?"
— 1691, Matthew Prior, Pastoral to Dr. Turner, Bishop of Ely: