rankled 1 of 2

adjective

as in angered
feeling or showing anger our supervisor was rankled by all the unexpected delays and problems we ran into

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

rankled

2 of 2

verb

past tense of rankle
1
as in raged
to be excited or emotionally stirred up with anger that kind of rude treatment from a young person makes me rankle

Synonyms & Similar Words
2
as in infuriated
to make angry it rankles me when some schools can't even afford paper and pencils for the students

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of rankled
Verb
Over all these sounds, Casey bemoans a world rankled with cryptocurrency, data centers and fascists. — David Harris, SPIN, 28 Sep. 2026 The essay follows the yearslong debate over AI’s place within the creative industry, which has further rankled people after AI company leaders acknowledged the tools may slip out of human control. — Corbin Bolies, Variety, 23 Sep. 2026 Across the litigation, Paramount had been rankled that the government and dozens of foreign regulators cleared the purchase. — Winston Cho, HollywoodReporter, 21 Sep. 2026 The secrecy around the project rankled; even though almost a quarter of it is owned by Albanian businessmen, their names are hidden in an offshore corporation. — Dexter Filkins, New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2026 Districts rankled by LifeWise rollout On a Friday in May, a LifeWise program director notified a Denton ISD middle school that Bible classes would begin the following Monday. — Kelsy Mittauer, CBS News, 28 Aug. 2026 In one season under Walter, season-ticket price increases rankled Lakers fans. — Los Angeles Times, 21 Aug. 2026 But solar expansion in South Georgia has rankled residents in some areas. — Kristi Swartz, AJC.com, 20 Aug. 2026 Adam Heimerman kept seeing the surveillance cameras on his way to work as a river guide in East Tennessee, and the sight rankled him. — Annie Gowen, Washington Post, 18 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rankled
  1. angered
  2. raged
  3. infuriated
  4. enraged
  5. steamed
  6. annoyed
  7. angry
  8. stormed
Adjective
  • The bar has been sparsely attended on what would normally be busy Saturday nights as some angered customers have called for a boycott, according to The Boston Globe.
    — Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 23 Sep. 2026
  • Police said the two male juveniles became angered when the other three would not take them to buy marijuana.
    — Carlos E. Castañeda, CBS News, 20 Jan. 2026
Definition of angered
Verb
  • Tension in France French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu addressed the nation on Wednesday night, to try and calm the student protests that have raged for more than two weeks.
    — Leonie Kidd, CNBC, 8 Oct. 2026
  • As protests raged at more than 1,200 French high schools this week, police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets in some cases.
    — Reuters, NBC news, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of raged
Verb
  • Sydney Sweeney is no stranger to starring in a controversial ad — and her latest effort has infuriated female athletes, including Olympians.
    — Jake Kanter, Deadline, 14 Sep. 2026
  • But Marcia was beginning to sound like Marcia on the page, Marcia in those essays that both excited and infuriated her readers.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of infuriated
Adjective
  • And not just any velociraptor, but the enraged dinosaur that pushed franchise champion Rachel Reilly into a volcano, thereby burning the reality TV icon to a crisp in a sea of lava.
    — Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Imagine the ripe smell of swamp-wet dogs, the acrid stench of overheated, enraged bear, the slippery warm blood of pack members already lost; the simply insufferable noise and confusion in that dank little hole.
    — Paul Schullery, Outdoor Life, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of enraged
Verb
  • Zucchini With its high water content, zucchini can turn mushy and even fall apart when steamed.
    — Katie Rosenhouse, Southern Living, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Their crabs are steamed, frozen and packed into boxes to be shipped to Sri Lanka, where workers remove the meat by hand.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of steamed
Verb
  • Coach Rhett Lashlee was already annoyed with special teams coming into the game, and that was before the Mustangs botched two PAT attempts.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 3 Oct. 2026
  • Those are the fans who have a right to be annoyed about their team having won as many World Series in the last quarter-century as the White Sox.
    — Mike Lupica, New York Daily News, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of annoyed
Adjective
  • To argue that calling them immigrants is technically wrong is like getting angry at people who don’t pronounce Los Feliz the Spanish way.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Sheriff Rick Ramsay said Monday that the father later told detectives that Lopez was angry that prosecutors didn’t offer him any plea deals, so his son planned to leave the country rather than face conviction.
    — David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of angry
Verb
  • The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, after passengers stormed the cockpit and wrenched back controlfrom the attacker, who Israeli officials suspect was trying to crash the plane.
    — Nicholas Wu, semafor.com, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Zverev served for the match in the second set but double-faulted to hand De Minaur a break and the Australian stormed back into it.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 26 Sep. 2026
Definition of stormed

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Cite this Entry

“Rankled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rankled. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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