rankle
Pronunciation
  • (RP, GA) IPA: /ˈɹæŋ.kəl/
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 (rankles, present participle rankling; 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,
      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 […]
    • a malady that burns and rankles inward
    • 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 Translations
  • Russian: терзать
Translations
  • Russian: гнои́ться



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Offline English dictionary