rankle

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English

WOTD – 6 February 2008

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 dracō (“serpent, dragon”).

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈɹæŋ.kəl/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (AU):(file)
  • Rhymes: -æŋkəl

Noun

rankle (plural rankles)

  1. A festering, embittering object or condition — either mental, or a physical sore or ulcer (rare).[1]

Verb

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  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.
    • 2014, Emily Dalton, A Baby for Lord Roderick:
      Liam hadn't meant for that last part to slip out. Allie might think it pretty pathetic that he'd remembered that comment from the first night they met, but it had rankled him then and, to some degree, it rankled him now.
  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 […]
    • Rowe
      a malady that burns and rankles inward
    • Burke
      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

References

  1. ^ Murray, J.A.H. The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (2 vols). Publisher: Oxford University Press. 1971. →ISBN
  2. ^ James Howard Harris Earl of Malmesbury. Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury. [1] publisher=R. Bentley 1844

Anagrams

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