Is clearly irritated by and cancels (9)
I believe the answer is:
scratches
'cancels' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'is clearly irritated by' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'by' could be 'at' and 'at' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scratches that I've seen before include "Abrasions" , "Abraded areas of the skin" , "opponents having no handicaps" , "Withdraws" .)