vex

From Middle English vexen, from Old French vexer, from Latin vēxāre (“disturb, agitate, annoy”). Displaced native Middle English grillen (“to vex, annoy”) from Old English grillan.

• enPR: vĕks, IPA^(key): /vɛks/

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• Rhymes: -ɛks

vex (third-person singular simple present vexes, present participle vexing, simple past and past participle vexed or (archaic) vext)

1. (transitive, now rare) To trouble aggressively, to harass.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts XII:

     In that tyme Herode the kynge layed hondes on certayne of the congregacion, to vexe them.

2. (transitive) To annoy, irritate.

   Billy's professor was vexed by his continued failure to improve his grades.

3. (transitive) To cause (mental) suffering to; to distress.
4. (transitive, rare) To twist, to weave.
   • Dryden

     some English wool, vexed in a Belgian loom

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To be irritated; to fret.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chapman to this entry?)

6. (transitive) To toss back and forth; to agitate; to disquiet.
   • Alexander Pope

     White curl the waves, and the vexed ocean roars.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:vex.

• (to annoy): agitate, irk, irritate
• (to cause mental suffering): afflict, grame, torment

• quake

vex (plural vexes)

1. (Scotland, obsolete) A trouble.

• “vex” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.