Word: vexation Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Late Middle English vexacioun, vexation (“physical suffering; act of inflicting trouble (specifically through unjustified legal action); anxiety, mental distress; mental disturbance”), from Anglo-Norman vexacion, vexation, Middle French vexacion, vexation (“distress, suffering; harassment (specifically through unjustified legal action)”), and Old French vexacion, vexation (“distress, suffering; harassment”) (modern French vexation), and from their etymon Latin vexātiō (“shaking or similar violent movement; (causing of) agitation, distress, suffering; harassment, persecution; trouble”), from vexātus + -iō (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs). Vexātus is the perfect passive participle of vexō (“to shake or jolt violently; to annoy, harass; to persecute; to trouble violently”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ-. By surface analysis, vex + -ation (suffix denoting an action or process or its result, or a quality or state). Doublet of quake. Pronunciation: /vɛkˈseɪʃn̩/, /vɛkˈseɪʃən/ 1. The action of vexing, annoying, or irritating someone or something; (countable) an instance of this. Labels: uncountable Example: […] I mourne in my prayer, and make a noiſe, / For the voyce of the enemie, & for the vexation of the vvicked, becauſe they haue broght iniquitie vpon me, & furiouſly hate me. Example: I ſtill had hopes, my long vexations paſt, / Here to return—and die at home at laſt. 2. The action of vexing, annoying, or irritating someone or something; (countable) an instance of this. Labels: uncountable Example: And, gentle Puck, take this transformed ſcalpe, / From the heade of this Athenian ſvvaine [Nick Bottom]; / That hee, avvaking vvhen the other do, / May all to Athens backe againe repaire, / And thinke no more of this nights accidents, / But as the fearce vexation of a dreame. Example: O Rome, in vvhat a ſickneſſe art thou fall'n! / Hovv dangerous, and deadly! vvhen thy head / Is drovvn'd in ſleepe, and all thy body feu'ry! / No noiſe, no pulling, no vexation vvakes thee, […] 3. The action of vexing, annoying, or irritating someone or something; (countable) an instance of this. Labels: uncountable 4. The state of being vexed, annoyed, or irritated; annoyance, irritation; also, disappointment, discontentment, unhappiness; (countable) an instance of this. Labels: uncountable Example: "Indeed you perplex me intolerably;" cried Cecilia, vvith ſome vexation, "VVhy, Sir, vvill you not be more explicit?" Example: All was safe and prosperous; and as the removal of one solicitude generally makes way for another, Emma, being now certain of her ball, began to adopt as the next vexation Mr. Knightley's provoking indifference about it. 5. The state of being vexed, annoyed, or irritated; annoyance, irritation; also, disappointment, discontentment, unhappiness; (countable) an instance of this. Labels: uncountable Example: Thus I haue conſidered all the thinges that come to paſſe vnder the Sõne, ⁊ lo, they are all but vanitie ⁊ vexacion of mynde. Example: [M]en lyued ſimplye and innocentlye without inforcement of lawes, without quarellinge Judges and libelles, contente onely to ſatiſfie nature, without further vexation for knowledge of thinges to come. 6. The state of being vexed, annoyed, or irritated; annoyance, irritation; also, disappointment, discontentment, unhappiness; (countable) an instance of this. Labels: uncountable 7. A source of mental distress or trouble; an affliction, a woe; also, a source of annoyance or irritation; an annoyance, an irritant. Labels: countable Example: [S]hould ſhe thus be ſtolne avvay from you, / It vvould be much vexation to your age. Example: She did harass Helen to give me up; but, after all, poor woman, I believe I have been a great vexation to her, and I cannot help being sorry for her. 8. The action of using force or violence on someone or something; (countable) an instance of this. Labels: obsolete, uncountable Example: 'Tis Princely, vvhen a Tyranne doth oppoſe; / And is a fortune ſent to exerciſe / Your vertue, as the vvind doth try ſtrong trees: / VVho by vexation grovv more ſound, and firme. Example: Name the vexations, and the Martyrizations / Of Metalls, in the VVorke.