rankle
/ˈɹæŋ.kəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.74 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "My colleague's gratuitous criticism still rankles with me."
- "[…] 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. […]"
- "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, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks16/1600641.txt I stood trembling with agony for the spear was rankling in the wound."
- "Contrary to the biblical injunction, I have allowed many suns to set on a quarrel I have harboured against you, but I must not allow the old year to expire without disburdening myself of what is rankling in my breast against you."
- "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."
- "What most rankles me about the term is how casually it is being applied to schools—temples of learning—and especially to children."
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ranklen, rancler, draoncle, dracunculus, dracō