Rankle
['ræŋk(ə)l]
Definition
(a.) To become, or be, rank; to grow rank or strong; to be inflamed; to fester; -- used literally and figuratively.
(a.) To produce a festering or inflamed effect; to cause a sore; -- used literally and figuratively; as, a splinter rankles in the flesh; the words rankled in his bosom.
(v. t.) To cause to fester; to make sore; to inflame.
Editor: Zeke
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. [1]. Fester, be inflamed.[2]. Be embittered, become more bitter, grow more intense.
Checked by Desmond
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Fester, smoulder, burn, irritate, gall, disquiet
ANT:Heal, cool, close, calm, quiet, compose
Checked by Judith
Examples
- The dimensions of the Brys' ball-room must rankle: you may be sure she knows 'em as well as if she'd been there last night with a yard-measure. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- Majuba Hill was made to rankle in the memory of the English people by a persistent press campaign. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- It would have rankled in me more than it did, if I had not regarded myself as eliciting it by being so set apart for her and assigned to her. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- Emanuel's soul rankled a chronic suspicion that I knew both Greek and Latin. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- The suspected prior attachment rankled in his heart. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- It rankles in you, rusts in you, and pisons you. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Comparatively few English people have even heard of this Treaty of Limerick; in Ireland it rankles to this day. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Its remembrance rankles still in the bosoms of millions of the countrymen of those brave men who lost the day. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I tell you it rankles in you. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
Editor: Terence