molest vs irritate

molest and irritate both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
molest	No	No	Yes	No
irritate	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, irritate is a hypernym of molest; that is, irritate is a word with a broader meaning than molest:

Other hypernyms of molest include annoy, bother, chafe, devil, get at, get to, gravel, nark, nettle, rag, rile, vex.

molest (verb)	irritate (verb)
annoy continually or chronically	excite to an abnormal condition, or chafe or inflame
harass or assault sexually; make indecent advances to	excite to some characteristic action or condition, such as motion, contraction, or nervous impulse, by the application of a stimulus
	cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations