different between vex vs rankle

English

Etymology

From Middle English vexen, from Old French vexer, from Latin v?x?re (“disturb, agitate, annoy”). Displaced native Middle English grillen (“to vex, annoy”) from Old English grillan. Doublet of quake.

Pronunciation

• enPR: v?ks, IPA^(key): /v?ks/
• Rhymes: -?ks

Verb

vex (third-person singular simple present vexes, present participle vexing, simple past and past participle vexed or (archaic) vext)

1. (transitive, now rare) To trouble aggressively, to harass.
2. (transitive) To annoy, irritate.

3. (transitive) To cause (mental) suffering to; to distress.
4. (transitive, rare) To twist, to weave.

   • some English wool, vexed in a Belgian loom

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To be irritated; to fret.
   • 1613, George Chapman, The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois

     Wake when thou would'st wake, fear nought, vex for nought

6. (transitive) To toss back and forth; to agitate; to disquiet.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:vex.

Synonyms

• (to annoy): agitate, irk, irritate
• (to cause mental suffering): afflict, grame, torment

Derived terms

Related terms

• quake
• vexatious

Translations

Noun

vex (plural vexes)

1. (Scotland, obsolete) A trouble.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “vex”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

vex

1. Alternative form of wax (“wax”)

Etymology 2

Verb

vex

1. Alternative form of vexen

English

Etymology

From Middle English ranklen, ranclen, from Old French rancler, räoncler, draoncler (“to ulcerate, to form a boil”), from Old French draoncle (“a boil”), from Latin dracunculus (“little serpent”), diminutive of Latin drac? (“serpent, dragon”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /??æ?.k?l/
• Rhymes: -æ?k?l

Noun

rankle (plural rankles)

1. A festering, embittering object or condition — either mental, or a physical sore or ulcer (rare).
   • 1795, James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury

     To this the Prince appeared to acquiesce; but I saw it did not please, and left a rankle in his mind.

Verb

rankle (third-person singular simple present rankles, present participle rankling, simple past and past participle rankled)

1. (transitive or intransitive) To cause irritation or deep bitterness.
   • 1890 — Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, chapter IX

     The close proximity of the two countries, the relative positions of their ports, made the naval situation particularly strong; and the alliance which was dictated by sound policy, by family ties, and by just fear of England's sea power, was further assured to France by recent and still existing injuries that must continue to rankle with Spain. Gibraltar, Minorca, and Florida were still in the hands of England; no Spaniard could be easy till this reproach was wiped out.

   • 1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter XX, [2]

     I stood trembling with agony for the spear was rankling in the wound.
2. (intransitive) To fester.

   a splinter rankles in the flesh

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book I, Canto X

     But yet the cause and root of all his ill,
     Inward corruption and infected sin,
     Not purg'd nor heald, behind remained still,
     And festring sore did rankle yet within […]

   • 1707, Nicholas Rowe, The Royal Convert

     a malady that burns and rankles inward

   • 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord

     This would have left a rankling wound in the hearts of the people.

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, chapter XIV

     You are beside him, sleeping and waking. You search his thoughts. You burrow and rankle in his heart!

   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXVI:

     Now blotches rankling, coloured gay and grim, / Now patches where some leanness of the soil's / Broke into moss or substances like boils;

Synonyms

• (to cause irritation): embitter, irritate
• (to fester): fester

Translations

References

Anagrams

• KERNAL, Karlen, lanker