RANKLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does rankle mean? 

• RANKLE (verb)
  The verb RANKLE has 1 sense:

1. gnaw into; make resentful or angry

  Familiarity information: RANKLE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RANKLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they rankle    ... he / she / it rankles   
Past simple: rankled   
Past participle: rankled   
-ing form: rankling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Gnaw into; make resentful or angry

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

eat into; fret; grate; rankle

Context example:

his resentment festered

Hypernyms (to "rankle" is one way to...):

annoy; bother; chafe; devil; get at; get to; gravel; irritate; nark; nettle; rag; rile; vex (cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The bad news will rankle him

 Context examples 

“It rankled in your baby breast,” he said.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Blasted as thou wert, my agony was still superior to thine, for the bitter sting of remorse will not cease to rankle in my wounds until death shall close them for ever.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

One quill he had carried away in his muzzle, where it had remained for weeks, a rankling flame, until it finally worked out.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Well, this injury, as he would consider it, has rankled in his wicked, scheming brain, and all his life he has longed for vengeance, but never seen his chance.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was a general laugh at this, and then at it they all went again, letting off into speech all those weary broodings and silent troubles which had rankled during long years of service, for an iron discipline prevented them from speaking when their feet were upon their own quarter-decks.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But the chief grievance that rankled in her soul, and gave an excuse for her unfriendly conduct, was a rumor which some obliging gossip had whispered to her, that the March girls had made fun of her at the Lambs'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A distinguished personage happened to visit the school that morning, and Amy's beautifully drawn maps received praise, which honor to her foe rankled in the soul of Miss Snow, and caused Miss March to assume the airs of a studious young peacock.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The interval was, consequently, spent in inaction; his grief only became more deep and rankling when he had leisure for reflection, and at length it took so fast hold of his mind that at the end of three months he lay on a bed of sickness, incapable of any exertion.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Such a recoil is like that of a hair, made to grow out from the body, turning unnaturally upon the direction of its growth and growing into the body—a rankling, festering thing of hurt.

(White Fang, by Jack London)