English Dictionary |
VEXING
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Dictionary entry overview: What does vexing mean?
• VEXING (adjective)
The adjective VEXING has 2 senses:
1. extremely annoying or displeasing
2. causing irritation or annoyance
Familiarity information: VEXING used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Extremely annoying or displeasing
Synonyms:
exasperating; infuriating; maddening; vexing
Context example:
the ceaseless tumult of the jukebox was maddening
Similar:
displeasing (causing displeasure or lacking pleasing qualities)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Causing irritation or annoyance
Synonyms:
annoying; bothersome; galling; irritating; nettlesome; pesky; pestering; pestiferous; plaguey; plaguy; teasing; vexatious; vexing
Context example:
it is vexing to have to admit you are wrong
Similar:
disagreeable (not to your liking)
Context examples
You take delight in vexing me.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Here I have been composing my soul to do without it, and here you are vexing me with your vain suggestions.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
It little mattered whether my curiosity irritated him; I knew the pleasure of vexing and soothing him by turns; it was one I chiefly delighted in, and a sure instinct always prevented me from going too far; beyond the verge of provocation I never ventured; on the extreme brink I liked well to try my skill.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
At that moment a little accident supervened, which seemed decreed by fate purposely to prove the truth of the adage, that misfortunes never come singly, and to add to their distresses the vexing one of the slip between the cup and the lip.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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