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Vexation

noun
1.
Anger produced by some annoying irritation.  Synonyms: annoyance, chafe.
2.
The psychological state of being irritated or annoyed.  Synonyms: annoyance, botheration, irritation.
3.
Something or someone that causes anxiety; a source of unhappiness.  Synonyms: concern, headache, worry.  "It's a major worry"
4.
The act of troubling or annoying someone.  Synonyms: annoyance, annoying, irritation.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Vexation" Quotes from Famous Books



... vexation, shrewdly increased it by pretending to associate him with the transparent coquette, while at the same time manifesting disapproval of her by a fine reserve. Amelia felt herself scanned quietly, coldly, and half curiously, as if she belonged to some strange and hitherto unknown ...
— Without a Home • E. P. Roe

... godly Councils, wha hae blest this town; ye godly Brethren o' the sacred gown, Wha meekly gie your hurdies to the smiters; And (what would now be strange), ye godly Writers; A' ye douce folk I've borne aboon the broo, Were ye but here, what would ye say or do? How would your spirits groan in deep vexation, To see each melancholy alteration; And, agonising, curse the time and place When ye begat the base degen'rate race! Nae langer rev'rend men, their country's glory, In plain braid Scots hold forth a plain braid story; Nae langer thrifty citizens, an' douce, Meet owre a pint, or in the ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... cried she, throwing herself upon a Sopha, here her Sighs stopp'd her Voice, that she could not proceed. Jeflur was struck with Amazement, and knew not what to think of such Emotions. He dried her Tears, he inlarged his Promises, and particularly vowed he would make her rich Amends for the Vexation she suffered on his Account. Let me alone, said she, at last, was it not enough to make me marry a Man whom I hate, but must you also draw me to love one who slights me? Yes, the King, with whose Love you flatter'd me, slights me; I am come ...
— The Amours of Zeokinizul, King of the Kofirans - Translated from the Arabic of the famous Traveller Krinelbol • Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crbillon

... gentleman of the last century, with all the chivalrous character, self-reliance, and gallantry of the youth of that time. Upon the men of the present day he looked with a contempt arising partly from inborn pride and partly from a secret feeling of vexation that, in this age of ours, he could no longer enjoy the influence and success which had been his in his youth. His two principal failings were gambling and gallantry, and he had won or lost, in the course of his career, ...
— Childhood • Leo Tolstoy

... unfit in many important senses for the responsibilities of family economists. Yet I still believe it possible for even the most inexperienced housekeepers to adopt and pursue, in their management of servants, one or two cardinal principles which will save them a vast deal of vexation. ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 3, September 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... by the poet-errant of this his second sally in quest of adventures. We cannot but think it was here and there touched up a little with the fanciful pen of the future essayist, with a view to amuse his mother and soften her vexation; but even in these respects it is valuable as showing the early play of his humor, and his happy knack of extracting sweets from that worldly experience which to others yields ...
— Oliver Goldsmith • Washington Irving

... rise to her face as he praised her eyes, and bit her lips with vexation; it seemed to her that she had suddenly caught an epidemic ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard

... Whitechappel was shut up for the sake of one infected maid, who had only spots, not the tokens come out upon her, and recovered; yet these people obtained no liberty to stir, neither for air or exercise, forty days. Want of breath, fear, anger, vexation, and all the other gifts attending such an injurious treatment cast the mistress of the family into a fever, and visitors came into the house and said it was the plague, though the physicians declared it was not. However, the family were obliged to begin their quarantine ...
— A Journal of the Plague Year • Daniel Defoe

... thought, wandered listless and unconscious along the broad and shady alleys of the garden. Sometimes, in a moment of vexation, she plucked the unoffending leaves from the hedges and strewed them upon the ground; sometimes she stopped suddenly, then rushed forward with impetuosity, then again stood still, and gazed upon the clear blue heaven. Sometimes her beautiful bosom ...
— The Bravo of Venice - A Romance • M. G. Lewis

... Taggard fell, as she listened to the sound of his retreating steps, was far from being a pleasant one. Aside from her natural vexation, she felt grieved and saddened by the change that had come over her once kind, indulgent husband. He seemed to be entirely filled with the greed of gain, the desire to amass money—not for the sake of the good that it might enable ...
— Choice Readings for the Home Circle • Anonymous

... was thinking, when her mother, surprising her gazing into vacancy, would ask her, "What are you thinking of?" And, at every new vexation she had to endure, her imagination decked him with a new quality, and she clung to him with ...
— Other People's Money • Emile Gaboriau

... family which is as numerous as that of the Greedyguts. To do her justice, she was a handsome little girl, and as brisk and notable as any young miss in her neighbourhood. But to her own misfortune, and the unspeakable vexation of most persons who came within the sphere of her observation, her little tongue was as active as her hands. She learned to talk very early, and so speedy was her improvement in the art of prattling, that, before she was three years old, she could ...
— Vice in its Proper Shape • Anonymous

... sort further or set forward the said Adventure, according to these Articles, shall stand and be freed by vertue of the said Commission; and that no person be in any wise reputed or challenged for an offender, against Our Laws, but shall be freed, under Our Protection, of and from all Trouble and Vexation that might in any wise grow thereby, in the same manner as any other Our said Subjects ought to be by Law, in their Aiding or Assisting Us, either in their own persons, or otherwise, in a Lawful ...
— Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period - Illustrative Documents • Various

... in a passion of vexation, "you will not surely let me be insulted by that drunken man?" "Hold your noise, Trotter; do now," said Simpson the page. He was affected by his mistress's deplorable situation, and succeeded in preventing an outrageous denial of the epithet ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray

... cried Guloseton, with an air of vexation, "here comes the Duke of Stilton, a horrid person, who told me the other day, at my petit diner, when I apologized to him for some strange error of my artiste's, by which common vinegar had been ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... the Bay of Biscay the weather gave us a halcyon passage; the wind falling lighter and lighter until, within ten leagues of Gibraltar, we ran into a flat calm, and Captain Pomery's face began to show his vexation. ...
— Sir John Constantine • Prosper Paleologus Constantine

... me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle ...
— The Ontario Readers - Third Book • Ontario Ministry of Education

... opportunity of exercising his judicial functions. Labes is duly arraigned and witnesses examines. But alas! Philocleon inadvertently casts his vote for the defendant's acquittal, the first time in his life "such a thing has ever occurred," and the old man nearly dies of vexation. ...
— The Eleven Comedies - Vol. I • Aristophanes et al

... Politics did not interest him, nor literature, nor field-sports. He shot, it is true, but mechanically; wondering, perhaps, why he did shoot. He attended races, because the House of Vipont kept a racing stud. He bet on his own horses, but if they lost showed no vexation. Admirers (no Marquess of Montfort could be wholly without them) said, "What fine temper! what good breeding!" it was nothing but constitutional apathy. No one could call him a bad man: he was not a profligate, an oppressor, a miser, a spendthrift; he would not have ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... being then wholly engrossed with the book of Sirach, he wrote to his friend Amsdorf saying that he hoped to escape from this treadmill in three weeks, but no one can discover any trace of weariness or vexation in the German idiom in which he clothed the proverbs and apophthegms of this book. Notwithstanding the length of time which his task occupied, and his constant interruptions, it has turned out a work of one mould and casting, and shows from ...
— Life of Luther • Julius Koestlin

... began; "I understand your vexation and can guess... who spied on us and lost no time in letting you know—" "It does not seem to depend on merit," Markelov continued, pretending not to have heard Nejdanov, and purposely drawling out each word in a sing-song voice, "no extraordinary ...
— Virgin Soil • Ivan S. Turgenev

... tears of vexation in her eyes as she rejoined her friends. "But somehow I felt I must warn him—it was an impulse ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John • Edith Van Dyne

... and dependants of the cardinal, the enemies and persecutors of the queen, received this decision of the attorney- general with vexation and anger; they found fault with the servility of the man who would suffer the law to bow before the throne; they made dishonorable remarks and calumnious innuendoes about the queen, who, with her coquetry and the amount received ...
— Marie Antoinette And Her Son • Louise Muhlbach

... on other matters with his brother till they reached home. He was a little annoyed to hear that Hamilton had expressed considerable vexation at his going with Mrs. Norman before afternoon school, and this, combined with the excitement and vanity under which he labored, disturbed considerably the tranquillity of his slumbers, and prevented his earnestly seeking that aid ...
— Louis' School Days - A Story for Boys • E. J. May

... acknowledging to have been pretty much realized at Chisenbury House. When I look back, and recollect the train of hangers-on that constantly surrounded my table, amongst the number of whom was always a parson or two, I am induced to exclaim, in the language of Solomon, "it was all vanity and vexation of spirit!" My life was a scene of uninterrupted gaiety and dissipation—one continued round of pleasure. I had barely time to attend to my own personal concerns; for no sooner was one party of pleasure ...
— Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Volume 1 • Henry Hunt

... —, meanest floweret of the Valiant taste of death but once Vallombrosa, leaves that strew the brooks in Valor, discretion the better part —is oozing out Vanity and vexation of spirit Vanity of vanities Variety, her infinite —'s the spice of life Vase, you may shatter the Vault, the deep, damp —, fretted Vaulting ambition Vein, I am not in the Venice, I stood in Verbosity, thread of his Verge enough Vernal seasons ...
— Familiar Quotations • Various

... account of it; a description of the life which he led, and which he was content to lead—"in much suffering, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watching, in fastings"—and an account, too, of the temper which he had learnt to show amid such a life of vexation, and suffering, and shame, and danger—"approving himself in all things the minister of God, by pureness, by wisdom, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the spirit of holiness, by love unfeigned;" "as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; ...
— Sermons on National Subjects • Charles Kingsley

... turned away again, and looked out for fresh opportunities with Lady Alice. Lucy, meanwhile, was left feeling herself even more unsuccessful and more out of place than before, and ready to sink with vexation. And how well David was getting on! There he was, between Mrs. Shepton and the beautiful lady in pink, and he and Mrs. Wellesdon were deep in conversation, his dark head bent gravely towards her, his face melting every now and then into laughter or crossed by some vivid light of assent ...
— The History of David Grieve • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... for you to esteem the person, of whose behavior you may have cause to be ashamed. Mutual esteem is as essential to happiness in the married state, as mutual affection. Without the latter, every day will bring with it some fresh cause of vexation, until repeated quarrels produce a coldness, which will settle into an irreconcilable aversion, and you will become, not only each other's torment, but the object of contempt to your family, and ...
— Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World • Anonymous

... princesses, each of whom threw down a handkerchief on the man of her choice. But the youngest would look at no one till at last they fetched the gardener's boy, when the king was angry, and confined them in a room. The king fell ill with vexation, and the doctors ordered him to drink bear's milk in the hide of a virgin bear. The king's six sons-in-law were ordered to seek it, and Mohammed too set forth mounted on a lame mare, while the people jeered him. Presently he summoned his own horse, ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... been planned on a scale commensurate with our means, we shall find it no extravagance to complete the larger work of outfitting with articles that will bring pleasure and not vexation, that will need no apologies. Surely no employment could be more interesting than the choice of these belongings which shall in many ways influence ourselves and those ...
— The Complete Home • Various

... this date that Van Artevelde in his vexation and disquietude assumed in Ghent an attitude threatening and despotic even to tyranny. "He had continually after him," says Froissart, "sixty or eighty armed varlets, among whom were two or three who knew some of his secrets. When he met a man whom he hated or had in suspicion, ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various

... servant Scapin, in his vexation, only told me the thing roughly, and you can learn all the particulars from him or from some one else. For my part, I will at once go to my solicitor, and see what steps I can take ...
— The Impostures of Scapin • Moliere

... are always so..." muttered Marya Dmitrievna in a tone of vexation, drumming on the arm of ...
— A House of Gentlefolk • Ivan Turgenev

... delay came gripping at her heart with an icy clutch, submerging the fear of personal peril in the agony of dread that, with her progress so slow, she would, after all, be too late. And at times she almost cried out in her vexation and despair, as once, when crouched behind a door-stoop, a policeman, not two yards from her, stood and twirled his night stick under the street lamp while the minutes sped and ...
— The White Moll • Frank L. Packard

... suitor wrote Alice the longest letter she had ever received, for it consisted of nine full pages. As most of it can easily be imagined, there is no need to quote it; suffice it to say that it was received with some pleasure and a little vexation by Alice. ...
— Uncle Terry - A Story of the Maine Coast • Charles Clark Munn

... to your great vexation, that untruths are told of you by careless persons behind your backs, that what you do has been misrepresented, and that in consequence a number of evil things are believed about you by the world at large. Hard though it be, you must ...
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII (of 8) • John Henry Newman

... of exposition being by citation of passages from other songs, or phrases that might occur in talk. I have listened to many a professor doing the same thing in Greek and Latin, but to none who had a finer instinct for the business. Kelly's vexation came when he had to "put English on" a word for me, and the obvious equivalent was not the right one. Sometimes I could help; sometimes he arrived by himself at what satisfied him, though once at least it was droll enough. We were at the lines where Connlaoch, ...
— Irish Books and Irish People • Stephen Gwynn

... himself, biting his lips with vexation, feeling that his present tactics were not like to ...
— The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel • Baroness Orczy

... easily judged from this description that my friend Sandy and he were at opposite poles from each other, as I have said, and as time passed this dislike increased until it became the chiefest vexation of my life. If I mentioned Hugh's name to Sandy, he would maintain a disdainful silence or turn the talk with abruptness; while if Sandy's name was spoken before Pitcairn, the great lawyer would raise his eyebrows, shrug his shoulders, or make ...
— Nancy Stair - A Novel • Elinor Macartney Lane

... success of his contrivance, and the prospect of going out with Harry on the approaching first of September, solaced King Corny, and seemed to keep up his spirits, through all the vexation he felt concerning Connal and this marriage, which evidently was not to his taste. It was to Dora's, however, and was becoming more evidently so every hour—and soon M. Connal pressed, and Mademoiselle urged, and Dora named—the happy day—and ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. IX - [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond] • Maria Edgeworth

... easily, she could not help feeling; but she knew she had been a puzzle and a vexation to her mother, and that Mrs. Ledwith had never had the least idea what to do with her; least of all had she now, what she should do with ...
— Real Folks • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney

... that her cousin was more to blame than she was. The little country girl instinctively understood that charity and benevolence ought to be a complete offering. She hated her handsome frocks and all the things that were made for her; she was forced to pay too dearly for such benefits. She wept with vexation at having given cause for complaint against her, and resolved to behave in future in such a way as to compel her cousins to find no further fault with her. The thought then came into her mind how grand Brigaut had ...
— Pierrette • Honore de Balzac

... Go see him out at Gates, and follow him As he hath follow'd you, with all despight Giue him deseru'd vexation. Let a guard Attend vs ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... vexation made lucent the shadowed depths of her eyes. "I've never been treated so in my life!" she declared, overcome by the self-pity of a struggling soul ...
— Success - A Novel • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... sum up, people are angry, and this anger is not caused by the shrieking of certain French papers, to which sober-minded people pay little attention. It is a case of vexation. People are angry at realizing that in spite of the enormous effort made last year, continued and even increased this year, it will probably not be possible this time to ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume I (of 8) - Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers • Various

... ejaculated the amazed barrister. 'Ay, ay, Jemmie; I see by your face ye're leein'.' 'Indeed, my lord, I am not.' 'Dinna tell me that; it's no in your memorial (brief)—awa wi' you;' and, overcome with astonishment and vexation, the discomfited barrister left the bar. The judge thereupon chuckled with infinite delight; and beckoning to the clerk who attended on the occasion, he said, 'Are ye no Rabbie H——'s man?' 'Yes, my lord.' 'Wasna Jemmie——leein'?' 'Oh no, ...
— Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character • Edward Bannerman Ramsay

... Laura's room I found that she had asked for me, and that Mrs. Vesey had informed her that I was with Mr. Fairlie. She inquired at once what I had been wanted for, and I told her all that had passed, without attempting to conceal the vexation and annoyance that I really felt. Her answer surprised and distressed me inexpressibly—it was the very last reply that I should have ...
— The Woman in White • Wilkie Collins

... The feeling of vexation thus engendered grew stronger with every circumstance tending to show resemblance, moral or physical, between my rival and myself. I had not then discovered the remarkable fact that we were of the same age; but I saw that we were of the same height, and I perceived that we were even ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... the government of the United States, of some instances of unjustifiable vexation and spoliation committed on our merchant vessels by the privateers of the powers at war, and it being possible that other instances may have happened of which no information has been given to the government, I have it in charge from the President ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... fury and vexation, the brethren rent their clothes. God paid them in their own coin. They had caused Jacob to tear his clothes in his grief over Joseph, and now they were made to do the same on account of their own troubles. And as they rent their clothes for the sake of their brother Benjamin, ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg

... waited for me at home, whither I returned full of vexation, used an expression which has been since verified by the event: "We failed, this day," said he, "to induce the Parliament, which if we had done, all had been safe and right. Pray God that everything goes well, for if but one of our strings fails ...
— The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, Complete • Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz

... me the names of these rivers, which I put down upon a sheet of paper devoted to preserving the names of some of the principal Maleks of the country. In my journey back this paper has disappeared from among my notes and papers, which has been a subject of great vexation to me.] ...
— A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar • George Bethune English

... man stamped his foot and his cane both with impatience. "Pshaw! pshaw!" he said: "women all alike, all alike." Then with an evident effort to control his vexation, and speak more slowly, he said, "Can't you see I'm an old man, child? Don't pester me now. Come, on, come on! I tell you I want to show yer that clock. Give it to you 's well 's not. Stood in the lumber-room twenty years. Come ...
— Mercy Philbrick's Choice • Helen Hunt Jackson

... door to say that the time was past, than the agents threw their bundles of plans and sections through the half-opened door into the hall; but this was not permitted, and the policeman threw the documents out into the street. The baffled agents were nearly maddened with vexation; for they had arrived in London from Harwich in good time, and had been driven about Pimlico hither and thither, by a post-boy who did not, or would not, know the way to the office of ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various

... the other day that he had expected—. But it does not signify what he expected." Lord Llwddythlw had also heard the story of what the Prince had said that he expected, and he scratched his head again with vexation. It had been reported that the Prince had declared that he had hoped to be asked to be godfather long ago. Lady Amaldina had probably heard some other version of the story. "What I mean is that everybody was surprised that it should be so long postponed, but that ...
— Marion Fay • Anthony Trollope

... having paid forty for the first cow. Besides, I had lost the better part of a day and experienced a good deal of vexation. If I could only have had ...
— Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail • Ezra Meeker

... after, the court returned to London; and from that time, some malevolent star having gained the ascendant, every thing went cross in the empire of Love: vexation, suspicions, or jealousies, first entered the field, to set all hearts at variance; next, false reports, slander, and disputes, completed the ruin ...
— The Memoirs of Count Grammont, Complete • Anthony Hamilton

... committed to writing, as well as I could, the principal topics of his conversation in his own words. I had no settled design at that time of continuing the work, but simply made the note in something like a spirit of vexation that such a strain of music as I had just heard, should not last forever. What I did once, I was easily induced by the same feeling to do again; and when, after many years of affectionate communion between us, the painful existence of my revered relative ...
— Specimens of the Table Talk of S.T.Coleridge • Coleridge

... ambitious aspirations were now forever extinguished, and the last gleam of earthly hope faded away from her mind. She pined away under the influences of disappointment, hopeless vexation, and bitter grief for about six years, and then the nuns of the convent followed the body of ...
— Peter the Great • Jacob Abbott

... little stoves, one in the cabin and one in the chambermaid's room, and here, the whole time we were on board, we had to do the cooking for a hundred men. Twenty times that day I fully made up my mind to cry with vexation, and twenty times that day I laughed instead; and surely, a kettle of tea was never made under so many difficulties as the one I made that morning. The kettle lid was not to be found, the water simmered and sang at its leisure, and when ...
— Woman's Work in the Civil War - A Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience • Linus Pierpont Brockett

... you" were the rule. How changed beyond all measure Life would become! Each heavy load Would be a golden treasure; Pain and vexation be forgot; Hope would prevail in every lot, And ...
— Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 1, January 5, 1884. - A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside • Various

... a little fire kindleth." "A look of vexation or a word coldly spoken, or a little help thoughtlessly withheld, may ...
— Architects of Fate - or, Steps to Success and Power • Orison Swett Marden

... the care of her two younger sisters. She talked to her son William, Duke of Cumberland, then little more than sixteen years old, admonished him to be a support to his father, and to "try to make up for the disappointment and vexation he must receive from your {119} profligate and worthless brother." But she also admonished him to attempt nothing against his brother, and only to mortify him by showing superior merit. She asked for her keys, and gave them to the King. She took off her finger a ruby ring which ...
— A History of the Four Georges, Volume II (of 4) • Justin McCarthy

... By no means. I know that the laws of reason will always have full power over your senses, and that, through the lessons you derive from wisdom, you are altogether above such weakness. Far from thinking you moved by any vexation, I believe that you will use your influence to help me, will second his demand of my hand, and will by your approbation hasten the happy day of our marriage. I beseech you to do so; and in ...
— The Learned Women • Moliere (Poquelin)

... three days that are spent in making out the vouchers and giving the decree or order—without which nothing is paid, for the reason that I gave above in the third section of this letter. This appears a vexation to the Audiencia. May God preserve the Catholic and royal person of your Majesty, as Christendom needs. Manila, August 4, 1628. Sire, the humble vassal of ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XXII, 1625-29 • Various

... disappointment, before long, John called me in, fearing that I might stray from the house and be lost or stolen. Of course, I obeyed him directly; but he perceived my vexation, and good-naturedly showed me a locker under the hall-window, where I might sit and study the humours of London at my pleasure. I thought I should never be tired of looking out of that window. The scene was so new and charming, that it reconciled me ...
— Cat and Dog - Memoirs of Puss and the Captain • Julia Charlotte Maitland

... commonest and most literal construction of the text, it is all wrong! She is described as an old lady, and Paul's 'miniature arm-chair' is mentioned more than once. He ought to be sitting in a little arm-chair down in a corner of the fireplace, staring up at her. I can't say what pain and vexation it is to be so utterly misrepresented. I would cheerfully have given a hundred pounds to have left this illustration out of the book. He never could have got that idea of Mrs. Pipchin if he had attended to the text. Indeed, ...
— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt

... good health while on this expedition. This, the Secretary of the Navy, writing to him, 15th March, 1799, chose to "attribute to vexation for not being able to fall in with the French" than to the effects of the climate. He had the "most entire confidence" that when joined by the other vessels Barry would "afford the greatest possible protection to our commerce and ...
— The Story of Commodore John Barry • Martin Griffin

... circumstance which ought certainly to alleviate it, the temptation to commit the crime. {See Sketches of the History of Man page 474, and Seq.} Fourthly, by subjecting the people to the frequent visits and the odious examination of the tax-gatherers, it may expose them to much unnecessary trouble, vexation, and oppression; and though vexation is not, strictly speaking, expense, it is certainly equivalent to the expense at which every man would be willing to redeem himself from it. It is in some one or other of ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith

... barberously razoring and scraping by the light of a cobbler's candle: furious was his wrath at this abuse and profanation of the title Last Will and Testament: and at one time, poor soul! he was near enough to tears—of vexation. ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey

... do me to torment myself about that which will be never the better for it? In short, I let Reason do that for me at first, which after a little While, Time itself would do. And this I be sure take Care of, not to suffer any Vexation, be it never so great, to go ...
— Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. • Erasmus

... received by the army with marks of unequivocal vexation. Retreat, in their estimation, was little less than overthrow; and it was most galling to find that, after all their labours, hazards, and toils, they were doomed to disappointment at the very moment when the prize seemed ready for their grasp. That the movement ...
— Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and Other Poems • W.E. Aytoun

... consideration for Nellie's sake, and even had tried genuinely to admire him because it gave her such pleasure; but when I discovered that the jackanapes took it as an evidence that he was progressing in my esteem, I did not know whether to laugh or cry with vexation. ...
— The Love Affairs of an Old Maid • Lilian Bell

... poor Infants, that come out of their Bowels. They will indeed have a kind of regret and trouble at it. But they will say withal, Why should I bring up a Devil in my House? For they believe, a Child born in an ill hour, will prove a plague and vexation to his Parents by his disobedience ...
— An Historical Relation Of The Island Ceylon In The East Indies • Robert Knox

... little mouse, and let it run nimbly round and round close to the kitten. Formerly it had been a never-failing excitement, but now, to Philippa's surprise and vexation, Blanche sat perfectly unmoved before it, and did not lift a paw. Perhaps during her short visit to the stable she had become acquainted with real mice, for after giving one slight sniff at the imitation one, she rose and walked away with ...
— Black, White and Gray - A Story of Three Homes • Amy Walton

... mistress at court. On hearing which King Charles avowed it was "a piece of ill-nature that he could never be guilty of; and if ever he should be guilty of having a mistress after he had a wife, which he hoped he should never be, she should never come where his wife was; he would never add that to the vexation, of which she would have enough without it." Finally my lord added that pursuit of the course his majesty had resolved on, was a most certain way to lose the respect and affections of his people; that the excesses he had already fallen into had in some degree lost him ground in their good esteem, ...
— Royalty Restored - or, London under Charles II. • J. Fitzgerald Molloy

... come to our notice that the agents and officials of our royal treasury at the port of Acapulco maltreat the sailors and others who come from the Filipinas Islands, and cause them much trouble and vexation, by obliging them to give up what they carry, obtained through so long and arduous a voyage: we order the viceroys of Nueva Espana to have the matter examined, and the guilty punished. They shall establish what remedy seems to them most effective, so that like ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXV, 1635-36 • Various

... insolent demand rang in my ears. For very shame and vexation I felt I wanted to fling that gold at Sandip's head. I could hardly undo the knot of my sari, my fingers trembled so. At last the paper rolls dropped ...
— The Home and the World • Rabindranath Tagore

... whom the success of our journey so much depended. He was accompanied by eight boats. With him we sent our collections of plants, minerals, charts, and drawings, to be transmitted to England by the Hudson's Bay ships. After this period, our detention, though short, cost us more vexation than the whole time we had passed at Cumberland House, because every hour of the short summer was invaluable to us. On the 11th Mr. Clark arrived, and completed our crews.—He brought letters from Mr. Franklin, dated March 28th, at Fort Chipewyan, where he was engaged procuring hunters and interpreters. ...
— Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1819-20-21-22, Volume 1 • John Franklin

... So great is my vexation always, when reading a play, to find its progress constantly being halted and its structure loosened by elaborate explanatory parentheses, that I resolved when I should publish Aria da Capo to incorporate into its text only ...
— Aria da Capo • Edna St. Vincent Millay

... ever done aught to merit the malediction of an ascetic? Never, never! Only her form, the memory of her, the beautiful phantom of her, the accursed phantom of her! What was she? An illusion creating illusions, a mockery, a dream, a shadow, a vanity, a vexation of spirit! The fault, the sin, was in himself, in his rebellious thought, in his untamed memory. Though mobile as water, intangible as vapor, Thought, nevertheless, may be tamed by the Will, may be harnessed to the chariot of Wisdom—must be!—that happiness be found. And he recited ...
— Some Chinese Ghosts • Lafcadio Hearn

... on a visit to that lady, whose promise she herself had feigned with a view of consulting her sister's tranquility, but on a random Search through the whole country for this unlucky fruit, which was like to produce so much vexation and prejudice to ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... to me,' said Kendal, with vexation in his voice, 'that there is a fate against my doing anything as I ought to do it. I thought, on the whole, it would be better not to make a fuss about it when it came to the last. You see she must look upon me to some extent as a critical, if not a hostile, influence, ...
— Miss Bretherton • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... belief in a flat roof above called Heaven, on which (seen at times in visions through clouds and stars) sat saints, angels, and archangels, forevermore harping on their golden harps, and knowing neither vanity nor vexation of spirit, lust nor pride, murder nor war;—and underneath a floor, the name whereof was Hell; the mouths whereof (as all men knew) might be seen on Hecla and Aetna and Stromboli; and the fiends heard within, tormenting, amid fire, and ...
— Hereward, The Last of the English • Charles Kingsley

... the 16th Mr. Joseph Gerald breathed his last. A consumption which accompanied him from England, and which all his wishes and efforts to shake off could not overcome, at length brought him to that period when, perhaps, his strong enlightened mind must have perceived how full of vanity and vexation of spirit were the busiest concerns of this world; and into what a narrow limit was now to be thrust that frame which but of late trod firmly in the walk of life, elate and glowing with youthful hope, glorying in being a martyr ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 • David Collins

... vexation. "That should have been done; but I bade them do justice on him straightway if they laid hands ...
— A Prince of Cornwall - A Story of Glastonbury and the West in the Days of Ina of Wessex • Charles W. Whistler

... know it by her wheel!" was the customary exclamation, sometimes uttered in a tone of vexation, but more frequently of satisfaction. She was so original and eccentric, had such an inexhaustible store of ghost stories and fairy tales, sang so many crazy old ballads, that children gathered round her, as a Sibylline oracle, and mothers, who were not troubled with a superfluity ...
— Helen and Arthur - or, Miss Thusa's Spinning Wheel • Caroline Lee Hentz

... on his neck. The full beard was paler in colour. His open, bold, irregular, rather thin face was illuminated every now and then by a smile—of which it was hard to read the meaning; one could not tell whether it spelt vexation, mockery or pleasure. His grey eyes could be bold and commanding, but for the most part wore a cold expression of contempt. Tied up in a knot as he was, he now sat motionless with staring eyes, stirring neither ...
— The Precipice • Ivan Goncharov

... especially towards any one connected with London. If Richard ever gave him any offence, it was by a certain freedom of manner towards inferiors, such as the Earl of Leicester had diligently inculcated on his family, but which more than once had excited a shade of vexation on the Prince's part. Even after Richard had reached the door, he was called back and commanded on no pretext to loiter or enter on any dispute, and if his search should detain him late, to sleep at the Tower, rather than be questioned and stopped at any of the gates which were guarded at ...
— The Prince and the Page • Charlotte M. Yonge

... with himself; For what am I thus tormented? and will easily find 'tis for nothing but that base and filthy thing, Sin; and now will Vexation be mixed with Punishment, and that will greatly ...
— The Life and Death of Mr. Badman • John Bunyan

... Marnell, who had gone ashore without leave, and had so sore wounded each other, that one was in danger of his life, and the other of being lamed for ever; and besides, that the survivor ran a risk of being hanged if the other died, which would necessarily occasion me much vexation. I also said, I was informed that Francis Williams and Simon Colphax were in the boat going ashore to have fought, and that John Dench and John Winston had appointed to do the like. John Dench confessed it was true, and that he had ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr

... ben sich a darned donkey," said Zac, in a tone of vexation, "I might have got at 'em before an' saved them all these hours of extra starvation. Ef I'd only yelled back when I fust heerd the voice! Who knows but that some of 'em hev died in the time that's ...
— The Lily and the Cross - A Tale of Acadia • James De Mille

... being reared for the next shooting season; the big black retriever that would have carried Alicia's parasol; the pavilion in the garden, disused since his mother's death, but which he had meant to have restored for Miss Audley—all these things were now so much vanity and vexation ...
— Lady Audley's Secret • Mary Elizabeth Braddon

... doubt whether I shall write more. I could be content either with the hell or the paradise of poetry; but the torments of its purgatory vex me, without exciting my powers sufficiently to put an end to the vexation." It was not that his spirit was cowed by the Reviews, or that he mistook the sort of audience he had to address. He more than once acknowledged that, while Byron wrote for the many, his poems were intended for the understanding few. Yet the sunetoi, as he called them, gave him but scanty encouragement. ...
— Percy Bysshe Shelley • John Addington Symonds

... for the money he had collected, though he retained it all; but Mr. Nell accounted for nothing of the kind; and if he has ever returned, I have not seen him. Mr. N. Paul arrived in New York in the fall of 1834, and remained there through the winter, to the great disappointment and vexation of the colonists. I wrote him concerning our condition and wants, hoping it would induce him to visit us immediately; but he had married while in England, an English lady, who had accompanied aim to New York, where they were now living; nor did he appear to be in any haste about giving ...
— Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman • Austin Steward

... frequently become sad to make him cheerful, and happy when I could do it at any rate. For once, in a pet, he flung a book at my head, because I had not attended him for two hours, and he could not bear to be slighted by little bastards, that was his word, that were fathered upon him for his vexation! O these men! Fathers or husbands, much alike! the one tyrannical, the other insolent: so that, between one and t'other, a poor girl has nothing for it, but a few weeks' courtship, and perhaps a first month's bridalry, if that: and then she is ...
— Pamela (Vol. II.) • Samuel Richardson

... creatures presuming to outdress their masters. What I wanted was the Corporal Trim style of thing—bald, faithful, ancient retainer. After a world of vexation I succeeded in finding an artless couple, who agreed for a stipulation to sigh when I spoke of my grandfather before my guests, and to have been brought up in ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII, No. 28. July, 1873. • Various

... stamped his foot with vexation, and hastened to communicate the tidings to the General. Meanwhile we continued to wheel the old ...
— The Gambler • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... Prieme in a tone of vexation; 'but the bird has flown, and even now I am busy with his brood. Good woman, cannot you give us some ...
— The Young Carpenters of Freiberg - A Tale of the Thirty Years' War • Anonymous

... even piety of expression. A large group of mothers, with numerous spectators, were in attendance. A question was put, to which a supposed incorrect response was given. It was repeated, and the same answer followed. The priest hesitated: something like vexation was kindling in his cheek, while the utmost calmness and confidence seemed to mark the countenance of the examinant. The attendant mothers were struck with surprise. A silence for one minute ensued. The question related to the "Holy Spirit." The priest gently approached the girl, and softly ...
— A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume One • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... javelin and saw King Olaf standing by the poop rail poising a second spear. The king flung his weapon, taking good aim; but this spear missed its mark as the first had done. King Olaf bit his lip in vexation, but as the earl turned quickly to beat a retreat on board the Ram, Olaf flung a third javelin after him. It struck the crest of Erik's helmet, ...
— Olaf the Glorious - A Story of the Viking Age • Robert Leighton

... an attack like this changes a man. What else could you expect? Really! What else could you expect? I noticed all that! That's why I am going to stay. Upon my word"—as he spoke he seemed to work himself into vexation—"upon my word, Doctor Isaacson, to hear you, anyone would suppose I had been making ...
— Bella Donna - A Novel • Robert Hichens

... became the law of the land through the travail of war. But the war had sapped the Nation's strength, had cost nearly a million lives and created a debt of three billions. Weary of strife and vexation, the nation was fain to leave the settlement of the problems, to which the new status of the Negro had given rise, to those among whom he was to live, i.e., ...
— The Disfranchisement of the Negro - The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 6 • John L. Love

... silent, he himself was trembling with disappointment and vexation, and his fury rose to the utmost when Plutarch, whom till then he thought he had won over to his daughter's side, tried to bow his bent old body before dame Julia, and said with a graceful gesture ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... which hindered not, but that they proved themselves to belong to that class of English travellers who scamper about the Continent like so many big, boisterous, presumptuous school-boys, much to the annoyance of every one who meets them, and to the especial vexation of their fellow-countrymen, who are not, in general, whatever may be said to the contrary, an offensive or conceited race, and are by no means pleased that the name of Englishmen should be made a by-word and a term of contempt. Opposite ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844 • Various

... woman, burst into tears. She was still very wroth with Margaret Callaghan, as she persisted in calling her; very merciless and unforgiving, as the gentler sex are apt to be—to the gentler sex. Mr. Bilkins, however, after the first vexation, missed Margaret from the household; missed her singing, which was in itself as helpful as a second girl; missed her hand in the preparation of those hundred and one nameless comforts which are ...
— A Rivermouth Romance • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... with whom I have to contend are not as numerous as those opposed to the Israelites, they are certainly much greater HEATHENS, having their hearts hardened and their understanding blinded, to make, propagate and believe all manner of lies. Verily, Stebbins, I have had much vexation of spirit in this business. I shall spend forty thousand dollars to obtain thirty, and it will all end in vanity at last. A contract had been made with the State of Tennessee which now hangs SUSPENDED. Two attempts have been ...
— The Age of Invention - A Chronicle of Mechanical Conquest, Book, 37 in The - Chronicles of America Series • Holland Thompson

... that she had learned about this auction. When her first feelings of vexation was over, the idea of deriving profit from it occurred to her mind. She had come to see it in a white satin vest with pearl buttons, a furbelowed gown, tight-fitting gloves on her hands, and a look of ...
— Sentimental Education, Volume II - The History of a Young Man • Gustave Flaubert

... just been held at Tours, and he was anxious to see how the English competitors had fared. The train was only a few minutes late. Smith asked the guard whether he had brought any papers, and to his vexation learnt that, there being no bookstall at Mottisfont, there were none for that station. However, the guard himself had bought ...
— Round the World in Seven Days • Herbert Strang

... King Arthur is grieved in his heart when he heareth that the angels' voices are stilled. The King is so heavy, that no desire hath he neither to eat nor to drink. And while he sitteth thus, stooping his head toward the ground, full of vexation and discontent, he heareth in the chapel the voice of a Lady that spake so sweet and clear, that no man in this earthly world, were his grief and heaviness never so sore, but and he had heard the sweet voice of her pleading would again have been in joy. She saith to ...
— High History of the Holy Graal • Unknown

... desert; this he occupied and quartered out, and commanded many fires to be made in it, as the custom is in a camp. This done, and the enemies seeing the fire upon the mountains, Antigonus was filled with vexation and despondency, supposing that his enemies had been long since advertised of his march, and were prepared to receive him. Therefore, lest his army, now tired and wearied out with their march, should be forced immediately to encounter with fresh men, who had wintered well, ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... instance," said Jemima, hitting, in her vexation at the plan, on the first acquirement of Ruth she could ...
— Ruth • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... the boy he had robbed, at Niagara. Besides, his time and attention were so much taken up by his aristocratic acquaintance that he had little notice for anyone else. Carl observed with mingled amusement and vexation that Mr. Stuyvesant wore a new necktie, which he had bought for himself in New York, and which had ...
— Driven From Home - Carl Crawford's Experience • Horatio Alger

... the mere child she was when they first met in the Fair House at Pymantoning; she kept seeing herself angry and ill-mannered and cross to her mother, and it was as if he saw her so, too. She resented that, for she knew that she was another person now, and she tingled with vexation that she had done nothing to ...
— The Coast of Bohemia • William Dean Howells

... inside and outside the bath, and everywhere, but it was no good, they could not find it. The search for this diamond lasted a long time, without their finding any trace of it, which caused the lady much vexation, because it had been unfortunately lost in her chamber, and also because my lord had given it to her the day of their betrothal, and she held it very precious. They did not know whom to suspect nor whom to ask, and much sorrow prevailed ...
— One Hundred Merrie And Delightsome Stories - Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles • Various

... of the King of France, into the Netherlands. Don John, the hero of the battle of Lepanto, who had shown himself on many battlefields to be at once a great commander and a valiant soldier, was prostrate by disease, brought on by vexation, partly at the difficulties he had met with since his arrival in the Netherlands, partly at the neglect of Spain to furnish him with money with which he could set his army, now numbering 30,000, in motion, and sweep aside all resistance. At this critical moment his ...
— By Pike and Dyke: A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic • G.A. Henty

... the practice of physic; but he was still abandoned to reckless habits and outrageous vice. One evening he lost a large sum of money at the gaming-table, and in the fierceness of his chagrin his mind was filled with the most desperate thoughts of the providence of God. In his vexation he snatched up a book. It was a volume of Bolton, a solemn and forceful writer then well known. A sentence in this book so fixed on his conscience that for many weeks he could get no rest in his ...
— Life of Bunyan • Rev. James Hamilton

... hatchet. The women, who had been kept at a distance, as soon as they saw the trinkets, ran down in a crowd to the beach, with great eagerness, but were soon driven away by the men, at which they expressed much disappointment and vexation. While this traffic was carrying on, a man came secretly round a rock, and diving down, took up the boat's grappling, and at the same time the people on shore who held the warp, made an effort to draw her into the ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr

... Perhaps a touch of vexation on Mrs. Wake's account. You didn't mean it, of course, but it might have ...
— A Fountain Sealed • Anne Douglas Sedgwick

... when I thought of my situation; of Kate in the cuddy of the boat, and of the will and money in the closet. I was afraid my uncle would discover his loss before I could escape. I could hardly keep from weeping with vexation as I thought of my misfortune. But it was not my style to groan long over my mishaps, when there was a chance, however desperate, of retrieving them. I was determined either to break my way out of ...
— Seek and Find - or The Adventures of a Smart Boy • Oliver Optic

... elders had returned to the subject of the investigations around the "lick" and the terms for Birt's services. As so much time had been consumed with the pyrites, the professor concluded with some vexation that they could hardly arrange all the preliminaries and get to work ...
— Down the Ravine • Charles Egbert Craddock (real name: Murfree, Mary Noailles)

... partners with each other don't agree, Each project must a failure be, And out of it no profit come, but sheer vexation. ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry

... value of the jewels were enumerated. This belt was ferreted out by the lawyers, and the result is that, as I said before, I shall be a ruined man. Verily," added Mr Donnithorne, with a look of vexation, as he stumped up and down the room with his hands thrust deep into his breeches pockets, "verily, my wife was a true prophetess when she told me that my sin would be sure to find me out, and that honesty was the best ...
— Deep Down, a Tale of the Cornish Mines • R.M. Ballantyne

... my father checked it, although it was a great hobby of his own. He had seen its fearful abuse in the origin of the French revolution, and regarded it as one of the evil spirits of the age. I recollect the mixture of mirth and vexation depicted in his face one morning, when on his remarking that I did not look well and inquiring if any thing ailed me, I replied, "No, but I could ...
— Personal Recollections • Charlotte Elizabeth

... after pigs, Mr. Gawffaw! I am really astonished at you!" again interrupted the lady, turning pale with vexation. Then, with an affected giggle, appealing to Mary, "I leave you to judge, Miss Douglas, if I look like a person ...
— Marriage • Susan Edmonstone Ferrier

... communicate his discoveries. He had some talent for sarcasm, and considerable skill in detecting the sore places where sarcasm would be most acutely felt. His vanity, as well as his malignity, found gratification in the vexation and confusion of those who smarted under his caustic jests. Yet in truth his success on these occasions belonged quite as much to the king as to the wit. We read that Commodus descended, sword in hand, into the arena, ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... appeared to be off skyward like a mad poet, when the signora again put a question, and at once he struck his hand flat across his mouth, and sat postured to answer what she pleased with a glare of polite vexation. She spoke; he echoed her, and the duchess took up the same phrase. Beppo was assisted by the triangular recurrence of the words and their partial relationship to Italian to interpret them: 'This night.' Then the signora questioned further. ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... Fanny, suddenly throwing down her pen; "and I don't think I am improved at it;" and she half cried with vexation. Suddenly a bright idea crossed her. In the little parlour where the schoolmistress privately received her, she had seen among the books, and thought at the time how useful it might be to her if ever she had to write ...
— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... be made. Are these trunks a burden, a vexation of spirit, a curse?' demanded Amanda, tapping one ...
— Shawl-Straps - A Second Series of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag • Louisa M. Alcott

... parted and an expression of disappointment with an admixture of surprise and vexation came over his face. But what did it matter? Were she as free as air, he was a married man. The humor of the situation appealed to him. He dropped his head into the bend of his ...
— The City of Delight - A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem • Elizabeth Miller

... the hall laid her book aside. Her unreasonable vexation had gone, defeated by the quiet statement of his simply confessed unhappiness. She looked about the hall and recalled their youth and the love of which she still felt sure. The manliness of his ways appealed ...
— Westways • S. Weir Mitchell

... dispersed to their homes; some in vexation that their favorite had not appeared, others in a little alarm at his strange absence. Young Francois Tegot had not seen his father since early morning, and could not conjecture where he ...
— ZigZag Journeys in Northern Lands; - The Rhine to the Arctic • Hezekiah Butterworth



Words linked to "Vexation" :   impatience, incumbrance, psychological condition, torment, bugaboo, miff, load, mistreatment, encumbrance, red flag, pinprick, restlessness, anger, business, onus, temper, botheration, displeasure, psychological state, burden, seeing red, ire, negative stimulus, mental condition, aggravation, exasperation, bummer, harassment, frustration, worry, mental state, choler, huff, pique, snit, vex



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