1
as in steams
to be excited or emotionally stirred up with anger
that kind of rude treatment from a young person makes me rankle
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in angers
to make angry
it rankles me when some schools can't even afford paper and pencils for the students
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of rankles
Omar’s growing outrage, especially when precious time is lost because of jammed phone lines, troubling silences and false assumptions, rankles Mahdi, the most overstretched of anyone at the call center.
—
Sheri Linden, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2025
But he's paired with Travis (Davidson), whose cheery demeanor increasingly rankles until their truck is hijacked and the two have to bond to survive.
—Marco Della Cava, USA Today, 6 Aug. 2025
Sheri Linden, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2025
But he's paired with Travis (Davidson), whose cheery demeanor increasingly rankles until their truck is hijacked and the two have to bond to survive.
—Marco Della Cava, USA Today, 6 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rankles
Verb
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At its heart sits Viti, a striking blue crater lake that steams invitingly in contrast to the stark black landscape.—
David Nikel,
Forbes.com,
16 Aug. 2025
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CookingPal’s gadget suggests meals, fetches recipes, chops, stirs, and steams ingredients, and then cleans up after itself.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
3 Jan. 2020
Verb
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Season 2 picks up after Kimmie marries businessman Horace Bellarie, inheriting a new sense of power that angers her in-laws, Netflix said in its release.—
Saleen Martin,
USA Today,
23 Aug. 2025
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After being told that Dawn is dead, Gaal mocks Demerzel for pretending to grieve, which angers the robot.—
Rafael Motamayor,
Vulture,
15 Aug. 2025
Verb
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As war rages in Gaza, violence in the West Bank has intensified as well.—
Tom O'Connor,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Aug. 2025
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While the debate rages on, the funerals keep coming.—
For the Carroll County Times,
Baltimore Sun,
16 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Elsewhere, the photo of Cartman is a reference to his reaction of Clyde’s incendiary new podcast that has a right wing theme that infuriates the perpetual instigator.—
Tim Lammers,
Forbes.com,
7 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Their eponymous theme sets the tone with a churning brew of twinkling synths and ritualistic percussion, both of which are eventually subsumed into the supernatural (represented by the theremin) before a crash of guitar boils everything together into chaos.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
20 Aug. 2025
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However, these blemishes are often a skin condition other than acne, such as folliculitis, boils, contact dermatitis, or keratosis pilaris.—
Sherri Gordon,
Health,
14 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The episode also takes aim at conservative podcast culture with a storyline involving a fourth grader named Clyde who finds fame as a White nationalist podcaster, which enrages Eric Cartman, who is the show’s resident bigot.—
Lisa Respers France,
CNN Money,
7 Aug. 2025
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Still, the inclusion of Agnes naturally enrages Enid.—
Jessica M. Goldstein,
Vulture,
6 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The spark becomes a blaze, and trust between citizens and the military burns with it.—
Eric Chastain,
Twin Cities,
7 Sep. 2025
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As a guy who is simply not built for summer (sweaty, burns easily, refuses to wear shorts), the turning of the calendar to September adds a little lead to my tread, with visions of cider and sweaters dancing in my head.—
James Folta,
Literary Hub,
5 Sep. 2025
Verb
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This is why Dijon’s language works best as sound, not narrative—his rangy, raspy voice seethes and triumphs, mocks and threatens; there’s no world in which his polygonal perspective can be discerned from a lyric sheet.—
Brady Brickner-Wood,
New Yorker,
16 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Rankles.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rankles. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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