▪ I. † vexed
variant of faxed a. Obs.
| a 1259 [see faxed a.]. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Yorks. iii. (1662) 200 Hence Mathew Westminster calleth a Comet..a Vexed Star. |
▪ II. vexed, ppl. a.
(ˈvɛkst)
Also 7 vex't, vext, 7–9 vex'd.
[f. vex v.]
1. Troubled, harassed; kept in a disturbed or unquiet state.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 509/2 Vexid, vexatus. 1583 B. Melbancke Philotimus T j b, If you will..kepe me still aliue in vexed plighte, for some offence I haue committed, then shew [etc.]. 1592 Kyd Sp. Trag. iii. ii. 13 The night..With direfull visions wake my vexed soule. c 1670 Wood Life 6 Sept. 1645, Col. Legge charged them so gallantly, that the rebels ran back... Yet farr had they not gone, before these vexed rebels came on againe. 1816 Shelley Sunset 43 The tomb of thy dead self Which one vexed ghost inhabits. 1870 Burton Hist. Scot. (1873) VI. lxx. 189 He thus was chosen to settle the vexed affairs of Scotland. |
2. Distressed, grieved; affected with vexation; annoyed, irritated.
| 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. ii. i. 564 O how it greeues my vexed soule to see Each painted asse in chayre of dignitye. 1652 Crashaw Carmen Deo Nostro, Epiphanie Wks. (1904) 211 [The sun] hiding his vex't cheeks in a hir'd mist. 1798 S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. II. 96 The vexed father now sighed to himself. 1810 Scott Lady of L. ii. v, While her vex'd spaniel from the beach Bay'd at the prize beyond his reach. 1846 A. Marsh Father Darcy II. iv. 95 The priest looked vexed and perplexed. 1894 M. Dyan Man's Keeping (1899) 247 ‘You think I look it?’ he said, with a vexed little laugh. |
| absol. 1824 Campbell Theodoric 193 Hers was the brow..That cheered the sad, and tranquillized the vexed. |
3. Subjected to physical force or strain; tossed about, agitated, belaboured, etc.
| 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 229 Where once Thou calldst me vp..to fetch dewe From the still-vext Bermoothes. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 660 Vex'd Scylla bathing in the Sea that parts Calabria from the hoarce Trinacrian shore. Ibid. x. 314 A ridge of pendent Rock Over the vext Abyss. 1718 Pope Iliad xviii. 549 The ponderous hammer loads his better hand, His left with tongs turns the vexed metal round. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam i. i, The peak of an aereal promontory, Whose caverned base with the vexed surge was hoary. 1850 Blackie æschylus I. 21 What time the Chalcian strand Saw the vexed Argive masts In Aulis tides. 1852 G. W. Curtis Lotus-Eating viii. 117 The vexed river rages and tumbles among channeled rocks. |
4. vexed question, a much debated or contested question.
| 1657 Heylin Ecclesia Vind. 215 Nor do I mean to meddle in so vexed a question. 1848 Mill Pol. Econ. i. v. §8 (1876) 48 This leads to the vexed question to which Dr. Chalmers has very particularly adverted. 1860 Ruskin Unto this Last iii. §54 The vexed question of the destinies of the unemployed workmen. 1874 Mahaffy Soc. Life Greece ii. 9 The great vexed question of the origin and composition of the Homeric poems. |
Hence ˈvexedness. rare.
| 1754 Richardson Grandison V. xx. 90 My teazing uncle broke out into a loud laugh, which..had more of vexedness than mirth in it. 1909 W. J. Locke Septimus xi. 160 Zora, regarding the egoist with mingled admiration and vexedness, could only say, ‘Oh!’ |