vex

From Middle English vexen, from Old French vexer, from Latin vexāre (“disturb, agitate, annoy”). Doublet of quake. Displaced native Old English dreċċan and gremman.

• 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)

2. (transitive) To annoy, irritate.

   Synonyms: agitate, irk, irritate; see also Thesaurus:annoy

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

   • 1980, AA book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 164:

     The first thing that greets you on entering the church is a notice asking you not to vex the goat, since it renders valuable service in keeping the churchyard tidy.

4. (transitive) To cause (mental) suffering to; to distress.

   Synonyms: afflict, grame, torment; see also Thesaurus:vex

   • 1834, L E L, chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara.  In Three Volumes.">…], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 151:

     I will not again vex her ear with words of love, however true, however deep: ours is an evil destiny, and we may not control it!

   • 1850, , “Canto XLI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 64:

     I vex my heart with fancies dim:
     ⁠He still outstript me in the race;
     ⁠It was but unity of place
     That made me dream I rank’d with him.

5. (transitive, now rare) To trouble aggressively, to harass.

   Synonyms: beset, hassle; see also Thesaurus:pester

   • 1526, , The Newe Testamẽt  (Tyndale Bible), , →OCLC, Acts xij:, folio clxxj, verso:

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

6. (transitive, rare) To twist, to weave.
   • 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. , London: Henry Herringman, , →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):

     some English wool, vexed in a Belgian loom

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

   Synonyms: chafe, fume

   • 1613, George Chapman, The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois:

     Wake when thou would'st wake, fear nought, vex for nought

8. (transitive) To toss back and forth; to agitate; to disquiet.
   • 1725, Homer, “Book IV”, in , transl., The Odyssey of Homer. , volume I, London: Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

     White curl the waves, and the vexed ocean roars.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:vex.

• quake
• vexatious

vex (plural vexes)

1. (Scotland, obsolete) A trouble.

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “vex”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

vex

1. alternative form of wax (“wax”)

vex

1. alternative form of vexen

vex

1. first/second/third-person singular present active indicative of vaxa