Definition of "rankle"

[…] and the alliance which was dictated by sound policy, by family ties, and by just fear of England's sea power, was further assured to France by recent and still existing injuries that must continue to rankle with Spain. […]

1890, Alfred Thayer Mahan, chapter IX, in The Influence of Sea Power upon History

I stood trembling with agony for the spear was rankling in the wound.

1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter XX

Contrary to the biblical injunction, I have allowed many suns to set on a quarrel I have harboured against you, but I must not allow the old year to expire without disburdening myself of what is rankling in my breast against you.

1942 December 31, Mahatma Gandhi, “Letter on New Year’s Eve: May the New Year bring peace to us [Letter to Lord Linlithgow]”, in R. L. Khipple, editor, Famous Letters of Mahatma Gandhi, Lahore: The Indian Printing Works, published 1947, page 131

Liam hadn't meant for that last part to slip out. Allie might think it pretty pathetic that he'd remembered that comment from the first night they met, but it had rankled him then and, to some degree, it rankled him now.

2014, Emily Dalton, A Baby for Lord Roderick

What most rankles me about the term is how casually it is being applied to schools—temples of learning—and especially to children.

2022 June 14, John McWhorter, “Republicans Want to ‘Harden’ Schools. That’s an Awful Euphemism.”, in The New York Times‎

But yet the cause and root of all his ill, Inward corruption and infected sin, Not purg'd nor heald, behind remained still, And festring sore did rankle yet within […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie

a malady that burns and rankles inward

1707, Nicholas Rowe, The Royal Convert

This would have left a rankling wound in the hearts of the people.

1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension

You are beside him, sleeping and waking. You search his thoughts. You burrow and rankle in his heart!

1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter XIV, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields

Now blotches rankling, coloured gay and grim, / Now patches where some leanness of the soil's / Broke into moss or substances like boils;

1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXVI

To this the Prince appeared to acquiesce; but I saw it did not please, and left a rankle in his mind.

1795, James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury., R. Bentley, published 1844, page 220