rankle
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
ranklesimple
-
ranklessimple
-
have rankledperfect
-
has rankledperfect
-
am ranklingprogressive
-
are ranklingprogressive
-
is ranklingprogressive
-
have been ranklingperfect progressive
-
has been ranklingperfect progressive
Past
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rankledsimple
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had rankledperfect
-
was ranklingprogressive
-
were ranklingprogressive
-
had been ranklingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rankle
1250–1300; Middle English ranclen < Middle French rancler, Old French raoncler, variant of draoncler to fester, derivative of draoncle a sore < Late Latin dracunculus small serpent, diminutive of Latin dracō serpent; see dragon, carbuncle
Explanation
Rankle is a cranky-sounding verb that means to eat away at or aggravate to the point of causing anger. If you want to rankle a cat, try splashing it with water and then putting it in the bathtub. Rankle goes back to the French verb rancler, which comes from an old word for "festering sore," which paints a pretty negative picture of what it means to rankle. A sore that festers gets worse and worse, or more infected, and if you rankle someone, they will get more and more angry. "Ankle" rhymes with rankle, and if you were to prank a friend and hold him by his ankles over a trash can every day for a week, it would definitely rankle him.
Vocabulary lists containing rankle
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Beowulf
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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.
See Examples For:
The defeat and the nature of it will rankle, especially because she was considered a serious challenger for the title.
From Barron's ● Jan. 28, 2026
But the lack of progress on the issue has started to rankle the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union for officers below the rank of lieutenant.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
That seemed to rankle several of the justices across ideological lines.
From Slate ● Jan. 10, 2025
Choi plays him accurately enough to rankle his home country’s audience, and believably enough to earn the rapper new fans in the U.S. and elsewhere.
From Salon ● Jan. 5, 2025
I was proud of my sister, but that year, something began to rankle beneath the pride.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
What really rankles Hedda, though, is that Lovborg and Thea have created something sublime while she has sought refuge with a scholastic mediocrity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026
What rankles most, say many Greenlanders, is that Trump treated their home–which he called “a piece of ice, cold and poorly located” —as a commodity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 24, 2026
Davies has played against England three times, including a 2-1 loss at Euro 2016 - a result that still rankles.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2025
That rankles, and the latest street protests over pay have come from police officers.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 8, 2024
If hatred still rankles, open hostilities have ceased.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 107, September, 1866 by Various
While Raymond was said to be conscientious and loyal to close associates, he commanded a mixture of respect and fear, and his demeanor occasionally rankled fellow employees, competitors and outsiders such as Wall Street analysts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
So some Angelenos are rankled by the fact that these ornate, historic lamps are spewing hospital light across the city that, in most other regards, cares about the way it looks.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has rankled Musk and other Silicon Valley insiders with his public warnings about the dangers of AI.
From Barron's ● May 6, 2026
King was Jackson’s mentor, but this act rankled the civil rights leader’s more senior allies, who viewed it as rank self-promotion.
From Salon ● Feb. 22, 2026
For the moment, Chadwick’s scorn, sounding as it did from deep within the bastion of small science, rankled deeply.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
AI companies are rationing their offerings and products, rankling users—a warning sign for a boom that depends on rapid adoption.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026
The military warning—first reported in the Washington Post, then confirmed in the New York Times—must be particularly rankling.
From Slate ● Feb. 24, 2026
But officials from the F.B.I. and Justice Department pushed back this month on specific proposals during their first public appearance on Capitol Hill to discuss the matter, rankling lawmakers.
From New York Times ● Jul. 3, 2023
“We didn’t take players from Oklahoma, we took players from the transfer portal,” Riley said in a February radio interview with Colin Cowherd, rankling fans even further.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2022
When he did find some time to visit me, he was very preoccupied, and I could feel him rankling with anger and with inactivity, but he tried hard to hide it.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
