vexing
Americanadjective
-
irritating, provoking, or annoying.
Automatic file recovery reintroduced errors already corrected at the proofing stage—which was very vexing.
-
tormenting, troubling, or distressing.
She came to see racism as her country's most vexing problem.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of vexing
Explanation
Anything vexing is bothersome or annoying. The noise of a car alarm is extremely vexing to everyone around. To be vexed is to be irritated or exasperated, so anything vexing creates irritation or exasperation. A splitting headache is vexing. A talkative neighbor can be vexing. Filling out a form is usually vexing. If you're trying to get somewhere and there's traffic, that's a vexing situation. Unfortunately, life is full of vexing situations.
Vocabulary lists containing vexing
Chains
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The Remains of the Day
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This Week In Culture: Current Events Vocab for September 12–18, 2020
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I have some exciting editions planned, but I also want to hear from you: What money matters are vexing you?
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
The resolution stretches across four single-spaced pages of the Tuesday meeting agenda — a complex, detailed approach to a vexing issue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026
As Salon has reported before, these things can appear extremely bright in the night sky, vexing astronomers and essentially censoring the stars.
From Salon ● Apr. 4, 2026
This allows fiduciaries to address the vexing problem of “de-cumulation”—spending safely without running out of savings—in defined-contribution plans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2026
The quandary deepened in mid-1950, when it became evident that the solution to a vexing technical issue in hydrogen bomb design rested on the collaborative work of Teller and the Polish mathematician Stanislaw Ulam.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
