RANKLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Rankle

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/rˈæŋkəl/ Listen

verb

Rankle v. t. To cause to fester; to make sore; to inflame. (R.)

Rankle v. i. (past & past part. rankled; pres. part. rankling)

To become, or be, rank; to grow rank or strong; to be inflamed; to fester; used literally and figuratively. "A malady that burns and rankles inward." "This would have left a rankling wound in the hearts of the people."

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.

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Etymology of 'Rankle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Rankle" Quotes from Famous Books

... look ere it reaches her heart, To bid its wounds rankle anew, Oh! smile, or embalm with a tear the sad smart, And angels will ...

— Poetic Sketches • Thomas Gent

... said, meaning it from the bottom of my heart. "Now one thing more, and you shall send me to Father Matthieu. 'Tis a shameful thing to speak of, but the thought of it rankles and will rankle till I have begged you to add it to the things forgotten. That ...

— The Master of Appleby • Francis Lynde

... in David and Goliath. He was possibly a man who betted on form, and on form Goliath should undoubtedly have won. David was an outsider. He had no breeding. He would have been surprised if he could have foreseen how his victory would rankle some thousands of years later in the soul ...

— The Pleasures of Ignorance • Robert Lynd

... For deeds undone Rankle and snarl and hunger for their due, Till there seems naught so despicable as you In all ...

— Poems by William Ernest Henley • William Ernest Henley

... mysterious title. It was an old dodge, but a good one. Nothing appeared on the advertisements but the mere title. No word as to what "The Crimson Cord" was. Perkins merely announced the words and left them to rankle in the reader's mind, and as a natural consequence each new advertisement served ...

— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume III. (of X.) • Various

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