Definition of RANKLE

The Connection Between Rankle and Dragon

The history of today's word is something of a sore subject. When rankle was first used in English, it meant "to fester," and that meaning is linked to the word's Old French ancestor—the noun raoncle or draoncle, which meant "festering sore." Etymologists think this Old French word was derived from the Latin dracunculus, a diminutive form of draco, which means "serpent" and which is the source of the English word dragon. The transition from serpents to sores apparently occurred because people thought certain ulcers or tumors looked like small serpents.

Examples of rankle in a Sentence

The joke about her family rankled her. that kind of rude treatment from a young person makes me rankle

Recent Examples on the Web

That power rankles in Tehran, Beijing, Moscow, Brussels and elsewhere. — Saumya Vaishampayan, WSJ, "Dominant Dollar Bests Challengers," 20 Jan. 2019 Biden's decision to publicly back Cuomo will rankle the progressive activists who have largely coalesced around Nixon, but his message for the more moderate crowd on Long Island seemed torn from the pages of a national campaign speech. — Gregory Krieg And Sonia Moghe, CNN, "Is Joe Biden running for president? Because he sure sounded like it today," 24 May 2018 That rankled some at NASA’s highest levels and prompted the agency to take a close look at the culture of the companies, the people said. — Christian Davenport, The Seattle Times, "NASA to launch safety review of SpaceX and Boeing," 20 Nov. 2018 While the appearance of scooters scattered everywhere has rankled city officials and residents, these services offer an in-between alternative between walking and hailing a car. — Daisuke Wakabayashi, New York Times, "A Taste of Lime: Uber Invests in an Electric Scooter Company," 9 July 2018 Belgian citizens gather in a Brussels park every day to arrange housing and food for 500 migrants, a massive effort that has rankled authorities. — James Hohmann, Washington Post, "The Daily 202: Red-state Democratic senator highlights bills signed by Trump in first reelection ad," 12 Mar. 2018 Chipper Jones’ caustic wit and willingness to speak his mind endeared him to the news media but not always to his teammates, and his post-career tweets have rankled some, though not at the level of Curt Schilling. — Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY, "Hall of Fame countdown: Chipper Jones a worthy addition to third base fraternity," 21 Jan. 2018 Any one of those policies rankle gun-rights activists, who have argued such restrictions would not stop gun violence, or are violations of the Constitution. — Joseph O’sullivan, The Seattle Times, "Judge blocks Washington ballot initiative to raise purchase age for semi-automatic rifles," 17 Aug. 2018 In April, Alaska announced other changes that rankled its loyalists, including charging extra for exit-row seats, changing its Premium Economy prices, and slapping on tighter change-fee rules. — Katherine Lagrave, Condé Nast Traveler, "Alaska Airlines Is Dropping Its Popular Price Guarantee," 8 Aug. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'rankle.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.