cheesed off
idiom

- to be annoyed or disappointed with someone or something

Cambridge Dictionary

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PHRASES ORIGIN

“Cheesed off” from the early 1940s, is of obscure 20th century origin. “Cheese” however, has much earlier roots: Old English cyse, (West Saxon), Irish caise, Welsh caws, West Germanic kasjus, Old Saxon kasi, Old High German chasi, German Käse, Middle Dutch case, Dutch kaas. The Latin caseus (cheese) is the source of Italian cacio, Spanish queso.

“To make cheeses” (1835) was a schoolgirls' amusement of wheeling rapidly so one's petticoats blew out in a circle then dropping down so they came to rest inflated and resembling a wheel of cheese; hence, used figuratively for "a deep curtsy" (tiefgehender Knicks).

The adjective “cheesy" from the early 1900s, describes things that are cheap, of low quality, or inauthentic — nowadays commonly used to describe things that are cheap imitations of something more genuine or of higher quality.

The photographer's command “Say ‘cheese!’” to make subjects hold a smile, is attested from 1930, probably for the forced smile involved in making the ‘-ee-‘ sound.

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SYNONYMS

Judging by the number of available synonyms, the "being cheesed off" seems to be a common state of mind in the Anglo-Saxon world:

aggravated, annoyed, beside oneself, bothered, browned off, bugged, CHEESED OFF, chagrined, cross, disgruntled, displeased, disquieted, exasperated, fed up (with), fuming, furious, getting on one's nerves, galled, hopping mad, hot under the collar, incensed, irate, irked, irritated, it gets on my nerves (under my skin), it ticks me off (drives me nuts/up the wall),

it makes me mad (see red, steam, my blood boil, my blood pressure rise, my hackles rise, my skin crawl, my teeth grind, my temper flare, my veins pop), it rubs me up the wrong way (sticks in my craw),

livid, mad, maddened, nettled, not amused, on edge, peeved, perturbed, pissed off, put out, riled (up), seeing red, sore, steaming, ticked off, upset, uptight, vexed, worked/wound up,

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today:

"It seems that a lot of people are CHEESED OFF with politicians at the moment!"

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