rankle

Plural: rankles

Verb

Verb Forms: rankled, rankling, rankles

To cause persistent irritation or deep resentment to fester.
gnaw into; make resentful or angry
- "The injustice rankled her"
To cause irritation, bitterness or acrimony.
To fester.

Noun

A festering, embittering object or condition, either mental, or a physical sore or ulcer.

Examples

a splinter rankles in the flesh
My colleague's gratuitous criticism still rankles with me.
The missed triple word score continued to rankle him for the rest of the game.

Origin / 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”).

Synonyms

eat into, fret, grate, embitter, irritate

Scrabble Score: 10

rankle: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
rankle: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
rankle: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 12

rankle: valid Words With Friends Word