Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The condition of being vexed; annoyance.
  • noun A source of irritation or annoyance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of vexing, annoying, troubling, grieving, or distressing; specifically, a harassing under forms of law; a troubling, annoying, or vexing by legal process, as by a malicious suit.
  • noun The state of being vexed, irritated, grieved, or distressed; irritation; sorrow; grief; annoyance.
  • noun A cause of irritation, annoyance, distress, sorrow, or grief; affliction.
  • noun Synonyms Anger, Vexation, Indignation, etc. (see anger), Chagrin, etc. (see mortification); trouble, exasperation, chagrin, petulance.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of vexing, or the state of being vexed; agitation; disquiet; trouble; irritation.
  • noun The cause of trouble or disquiet; affliction.
  • noun A harassing by process of law; a vexing or troubling, as by a malicious suit.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of annoying, vexing, or irritating.
  • noun The state of being vexed or irritated.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the psychological state of being irritated or annoyed
  • noun anger produced by some annoying irritation
  • noun the act of troubling or annoying someone
  • noun something or someone that causes anxiety; a source of unhappiness

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From vex + -ation

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Examples

  • But, when he cometh back from his journey, all will not be save well458: so go ye to your shops and sell and buy, for this vexation is removed from you.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • The power of righteous vexation is what keeps so many old Democrats hanging on in nursing homes long past the time they should have kicked off.

    October 2006 2006

  • Their doubt is, in part, determined; and yet their vexation is increased by another messenger, who brings them word that their prisoners are preaching in the temple (v. 25): "Behold, the men whom you put in prison, and have sent for to your bar, are now hard by you here, standing in the temple, under your nose and in defiance of you, teaching the people."

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721

  • In this regard, Professor Albert Abel, of the University of Toronto Law School, and a distinguished authority on public administration, wrote four years ago that as for individuals, "the harm (of disclosure) may be economic, as where preliminary investigations into the management of a company or the wholesomeness of a product are under way; in such cases, even an ultimate clean bill of health would probably not save the enterprise from grave loss and the authorities quite properly do not want to reveal such matters past or present ... the individual's interest in being free from shame and vexation is not to be sacrificed to a mere general right to know."

    The Right to Know 1972

  • They throw themselves upon the ground, in vexation at their troubles, and there they lie at the head of all the streets, complaining to all that pass by (Lam.i. 12), pining away for want of necessary food; there they lie like a wild bull in a net, fretting and raging, struggling and pulling, to help themselves, but entangling themselves so much the more, and making their condition the worse by their own passions and discontents.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721

  • Another vexation was the occasional arrival of false prophets in a community where every man was expected to have a current supply of religious experiences always ready for circulation.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 71, September, 1863 Various

  • The vexation was a real one, but this is the language of a petulant invalid, of a man to whom the grasshopper has become a burden.

    Raleigh Edmund Gosse 1888

  • His vexation was the greater, that, if his conjecture were correct, it would place him in a difficult position towards the Belmonts.

    The Bastonnais Tale of the American Invasion of Canada in 1775-76 John Lesp��rance 1864

  • She had admired and esteemed Mr. Faulkland prodigiously; her vexation was the greater, in finding her expectations disappointed; and could I have been so unjust to the pretensions of another, or so indelicate in regard to myself, as to have overlooked Mr. Faulkland's fault, I knew my mother would be inflexible.

    Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph 1767

  • Our labour is called the vexation of our heart (v. 22); it is to most a force upon themselves, so natural is it to us to love our ease.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721

Comments

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  • It's not that there's anything inaccurate about this WeirdNet definition; it just leaves me wondering what other kinds of irritation there are.

    August 4, 2008

  • There's WeirdNet, for one.

    August 5, 2008