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
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 Upon taking over as chairman, Tom Pohlad insisted the club needed to atone for a series of mistakes made by ownership over 2 1/2 years that rankled fans and players alike. — Dan Hayes, New York Times, 4 Aug. 2026 When Epstein’s appointment was announced, his political leanings – his cover letter for the role laid out an explicitly conservative vision – as well as his relative lack of experience rankled many FIU law faculty members. — Austin Horn july 24, Miami Herald, 24 July 2026 That data wasn’t always included in the FDA scientists’ presentations — a decision that rankled some committee members. — Sara G. Miller, NBC news, 23 July 2026 But the guard rankled at the July 6 decision to pull her out of the starting lineup, blasting the move on social media and doubling down in an ensuing media availability in Phoenix. — Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 13 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rankled
  1. angered
  2. raged
  3. infuriated
  4. enraged
  5. steamed
  6. annoyed
  7. angry
  8. stormed
Adjective
  • 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
  • Soon, the faces of the angered New York City citizens around her soften.
    — Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 15 Aug. 2025
Definition of angered
Verb
  • The deadly multistate outbreak, linked to iceberg lettuce, has raged on this summer.
    — Rebecca Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 28 Aug. 2026
  • The company said a large fire raged at an Ozon logistics facility in the suburbs of Krasnodar following the overnight attack.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 24 Aug. 2026
Definition of raged
Verb
  • The White House’s abrupt decision last week to ease tariffs on 300,000 metric tons — more than 660 million pounds — of foreign beef imports has infuriated American cattle ranchers and congressional Republicans alike.
    — Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA Today, 27 Aug. 2026
  • The heated rhetoric has infuriated and astonished most Canadians; in a recent poll, seventy-six per cent supported the decision of the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, to walk away from trade talks with Washington.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, New Yorker, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of infuriated
Adjective
  • 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
  • As a consequence, Nadia’s enraged sponsors send her packing back to Europe.
    — Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of enraged
Verb
  • 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
  • The sweet alliums are cooked with cilantro and extra-virgin olive oil until tender, then tucked into thin dumpling wrappers that are folded into half-moons and steamed for exactly 10 minutes — any longer and the dough could break.
    — Warren Rojas, Washington Post, 19 Aug. 2026
Definition of steamed
Verb
  • Not even Jeff being annoyed at Kasandra’s drunkenness can ruin the mood.
    — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 1 Sep. 2026
  • That was Gardner’s first game with the Colts after being acquired from the New York Jets, and while Indy pulled out the OT victory, Gardner was still annoyed by some of the social media chatter afterward.
    — James Boyd, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of annoyed
Adjective
  • Much of the work is also focused on building guardrails to protect clients from lawsuits — coming from business partners, local officials, or angry neighbors — in an industry that has an increasingly visible target on its back.
    — Tim McDonnell, semafor.com, 3 Sep. 2026
  • Though nothing about the current situation is ideal, there’s no clear way to hop off without ensuring certain doom at the hands of a large, angry cat.
    — Joe Wilkins, Futurism, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of angry
Verb
  • Young people armed with machetes stormed the site of the funeral, forcing the team to flee and injuring one member, a representative told the Associated Press.
    — Constant Same Bagalwa, Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2026
  • Jerusalem — Israeli settlers stormed a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank on Saturday and seized a home while its owner was inside in the latest brazen settler attack in the area.
    — Oren Liebermann, CNN Money, 30 Aug. 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 5 Sep. 2026.

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