rankle

/ˈɹæŋ.kəl/

verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: rankled, rankles

To rankle is to keep causing bitter resentment. It still rankles, the remark rankled, rankles to this day.

The word is nearly always used of something small that will not fade, and the subject is the grievance rather than the person. The Old French behind it meant to fester, which is exactly the image.

Definitions of rankle

1verbrankleTo keep causing bitter resentment.C2
“Losing the final to their old rivals still rankles with the players.”

rankle is an irritating.

Where it comes from

Old French rancler means to fester, from a word for a boil or sore.

Old French
rancler
Middle English
ranklen
English, today
rankle

Built from

draoncler · Old French — to ulcerate, to form a boil

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”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

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