vex
/vɛks/
vex verb: to annoy, irritate.
Verb
vex (third-person singular simple present vexes, present participle vexing, simple past and past participle vexed or (archaic) vext)
- To annoy, irritate.
- Billy's professor was vexed by his continued failure to improve his grades.
- 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.1980, AA book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 164
- To cause (mental) suffering to; to distress.
- 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!1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 151
- 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.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 64
- To trouble aggressively, to harass.
- In that tyme Herode the kynge layed hondes on certayne of the congregaciõ, to vexe them.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts xij:[1], folio clxxj, verso
- To twist, to weave.
- some English wool, vexed in a Belgian loom1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number)
- To be irritated; to fret.
- Wake when thou would'st wake, fear nought, vex for nought1613, George Chapman, The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois
- To toss back and forth; to agitate; to disquiet.
- White curl the waves, and the vexed ocean roars.1725, Homer, “Book IV”, in [Elijah Fenton], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC
Noun
vex (plural vexes)
- A trouble.
Proper noun capitalized: VEX
VEX
- Initialism of Venus Express.
vex meaning in Hindi and Persian
vex in Hindi
- to annoy
- परेशान करना pareśān karnā
vex in Persian
- to annoy
- آزردن âzordan
- to distress; to cause mental suffering
- رنجاندن ranjândan
Synonyms of vex
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of vex
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | vexes |
| present participle | vexing |
| past participle | vexed |
| past | vexed |
| past participle (archaic) | vext |
| past (archaic) | vext |
| Noun | |
| plural | vexes |
Origin of vex
From Middle English vexen, from Old French vexer, from Latin vexāre (“disturb, agitate, annoy”). Displaced native Old English dreċċan and gremman.
Words formed from vex
Words that rhyme with vex
Questions about vex
- What does vex mean?
- Vex means to annoy, irritate.
- What is vex in Hindi?
- Vex in Hindi is परेशान करना (pareśān karnā). See Vex meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is vex?
- Vex can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce vex?
- Vex is pronounced /vɛks/.
- What is the past tense of vex?
- The past tense of vex is vexed.
Words near vex in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: vex (page history and authors); VEX (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-vex.ogg, en-au-vex.ogg.
Cite this entry: “vex.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vex. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.