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
-
rankledsimple
-
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
It could also upset the stock market and rankle high-dollar corporate donors who need a reliable legal system to attract investors.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2025
Winter has been unafraid to rankle city and county officials as she has criticized the status quo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2024
By the time Boyle was released in 1980, he had also become a bestselling author, - but the controversy over the special unit had started to rankle with elements of the Scottish public.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2024
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 rankles more is his only international T20 appearance three weeks later, when Ireland plundered 52 from his four overs.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 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
But what rankles him is not so much the scope of the agenda.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2025
That rankles, and the latest street protests over pay have come from police officers.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 8, 2024
The inconceivable bungling about New Guinea especially rankles in their breasts.
From Six Letters From the Colonies by Seaton, R. C. (Robert Cooper)
Testimony centered heavily on Altman's integrity and behind-the-scenes maneuvering that rankled colleagues, many of whom have since left OpenAI.
From Barron's ● May 18, 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
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
But the apparent lack of progress on the Seahawks’ front had rankled other NFL owners over the years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026
This injustice rankled, and at that moment I saw Dr. Kerr less as a benefactor than as a not-altogether-benign dictator.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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
Cheap replicas are flooding the market for the old-timey pens, rankling fans of a product long known for steep prices and a user base dominated by royalty, politicians and wealthy elites.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2025
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
Bobo’s only misstep other than calling In-N-Out “overrated,” rankling fans of the wildly popular burger chain, came in the season opener.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 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.
