rile

English

Etymology

From a dialectal pronunciation of roil.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɹaɪl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɹɑel/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ɹaɪl/, [ɹɑe̯l]
• Rhymes: -aɪl

Verb

rile (third-person singular simple present riles, present participle riling, simple past and past participle riled)

1. To stir or move from a state of calm or order.

   Synonyms: aggravate, irritate, trouble, vex; see also Thesaurus:annoy

   Money problems rile the underpaid worker every day.

   Mosquitoes buzzing in my ear really rile me.

   It riles me that she never closes the door after she leaves.

   • 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC:

     “Boh!” said Tom, “don’t I know?—don’t make me too sick with any yer stuff,—my stomach is a leetle riled now;” and Tom drank half a glass of raw brandy.

2. (in particular) To make angry.

   Synonyms: anger; see also Thesaurus:enrage

   • 2010 August 30, Charlie Brooker, “Buzzwords for blowhards”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 30 May 2023:

     Nothing riles an anti-mosque demonstrator more than being called a bigot.

   • 2011 October 20, Michael da Silva, “Stoke 3 - 0 Macc Tel-Aviv”, in BBC Sport‎^[2], archived from the original on 26 February 2022:

     Riled by a decision that went against him, Ziv kicked his displaced boot at the assistant referee and, after a short consultation between the officials, he was given his marching orders and the loudest cheer of the night.

   • 2025 May 8, Angela Giuffrida and Harriet Sherwood, “White smoke from Sistine Chapel chimney signals election of new pope”, in The Guardian‎^[3], archived from the original on 20 July 2025:

     Francis riled conservative cardinals with his compassion for migrants and refugees, openness towards LGBTQ+ Catholics and demands for action on the climate crisis.

Derived terms

• rilesome
• rile up
• riley

Translations

to anger, annoy — see also trigger

• Bulgarian: сърдя (bg) (sǎrdja), дразня (bg) (draznja)
• Czech: lézt na nervy impf, vytáčet impf, štvát (cs) impf
• Finnish: ärsyttää (fi), suututtaa (fi)
• German: aufbringen (de), reizen (de), ärgern (de)
• Hungarian: bosszant (hu), dühít (hu), kihoz a sodrából
• Ido: iracigar (io)
• Māori: whakariri, whakatakariri
• Russian: злить (ru) (zlitʹ), раздражать (ru) (razdražatʹ)
• Spanish: encolerizar (es), irritar (es), sacar de quicio (es), sulfurar (es), encabronar (es) (vulgar)
• Tagalog: mang-inis, inisin
• Turkish: kızdırmak (tr)

to incite

• Finnish: ärsyttää (fi)
• Hungarian: izgat (hu)
• Portuguese: incitar (pt)
• Spanish: sacar de quicio (es)

Anagrams

• Iler, Irel., Lier, Reil, Riel, lier, lire, riel, -lier

Spanish

Verb

rile

1. only used in me rile, first-person singular present subjunctive of rilarse
2. only used in se rile, third-person singular present subjunctive of rilarse
3. only used in se ... rile, syntactic variant of rílese, third-person singular imperative of rilarse