resentful

UK/ɹɪˈzɛntfəl/US/ɹɪˈzɛntfəl/

adjectiveC12 meanings Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,210 of 15,258neutral

Resentful is the quiet, lasting anger you carry about something unfair that was done to you, maybe years ago. The brother who was passed over for the family business, still polite at Christmas dinner, still counting.

It is a slow burn rather than a shout, and resentful people rarely say straight out what is wrong. The patterns are resentful OF and resentful ABOUT: resentful of her success, resentful about being left out. The noun is resentment, which you build up, harbour or nurse, and the verb is resent — he resents having to ask. Resent has nothing to do with re-sent, meaning sent again. And keep it apart from jealous: jealousy wants what you have, while resentment wants an old wrong put right.

Definitions of resentful

1adjectiveresentfulFeeling quiet, lasting anger about something you believe was unfair.C1~89%
“He was resentful about being passed over for the promotion.”
synonyms: bitter, aggrieved, sullen
2adjectiveshowingShowing that anger, in a look, a tone or a silence.C1~11%
“She gave him a resentful glance and said nothing at all.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 9 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Where it comes from

Resentful is built the plain way, from resent plus -ful: full of resentment. That -ful ending does the same work in careful, hopeful and painful, filling a person with the thing the root names.

Old French
resentir
Middle French
ressentir
English
resent
English, today
resentful

Built from

sentir · Old French — to feel

From resent + -ful. resent comes from Middle French ressentir, resentir, from Old French resentir (Modern ressentir), from re- + sentir (“to feel”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Feelings & Character, A Man Called Ove, Moods & Relationships

First appears in chapter 3 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

resentful in the wild

According to one legend, a resentful Daksha conducted a yajna (fire-sacrifice), and deliberately did not invite his youngest daughter Sati and her husband Shiva.
Daksha
Alternatively, the experimental group could be resentful of the control group, if the experimental group perceive its treatment as inferior.
Resentful demoralization
After Li Yuan became the emperor, he did not award the same honours to Liu Wenjing as he did to Pei Ji, thus Liu became very resentful.
Liu Wenjing
Metaphorically, each part of the body has a specific role, and no one should be jealous or resentful of the role assigned to them.
Interpretation of Knowledge
The battle, and especially the images of Iraqi civilians killed or injured in the fighting, caused many Iraqis to become resentful of the US presence.
First Battle of Fallujah

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the sentir family

scent resent

resentful — used about once every 5,793 pages · #10,210 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of resentful

1adjectiveresentfulFeeling quiet, lasting anger about something you believe was unfair.C1~89%

“He was resentful about being passed over for the promotion.”

synonyms: bitter, aggrieved, sullen

2adjectiveshowingShowing that anger, in a look, a tone or a silence.C1~11%

“She gave him a resentful glance and said nothing at all.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 9 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.