?a1425 MS Hunterian 95 f. 86^v (MED) Of rankelyng in a wounde.

?a1425 MS Hunterian 95 f. 153^v (MED) Þe crummes of brede soþen in wyne..heleþ euerye ranclynge boþe of wounde and of blodelesse.

c1450 Med. Recipes (BL Add. 33996) in F. Heinrich Mittelengl. Medizinbuch (1896) 224 Hyt wolle aswage ranclyng of woundes.

?c1450 in Anglia (1896) 18 303 (MED) Make a playstyr of good reles..And al þe rancelynge schall owyr gon.

1550 M. Coverdale tr. O. Werdmueller Spyrytuall & Precyouse Pearle sig. A6^v All medycynes of the soule, whych be layed on the sores therof, not hauynge that cleanser wyth them, be but ouer healers, they do not take away the ranklyng wythin.

1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball i. xlix. 71 Corruption, festering or inward ranckling.

1614 G. Markham Cheape & Good Husb. (1623) 127 To preuent the ranckling and impostumation of the soare.

1653 W. Denny Pelecanicidium ii. 91 Self-heal is here taken for Recognition of a mans self, his Recollection, which accompanies Humility, which asswageth the Fury, and preventeth the Ranckling of Inward Passions.

1682 G. Vernon Life P. Heylyn 19 Make use of the Princes Patronage, as the best lenitive to prevent the rankling of this wound.

1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 358 His Limbs swell'd with the rankling of his two Wounds.

1795 R. Ramsden Right to Life 19 The signs of the ranklings of the heart are not unknown to us.

1832 T. B. Macaulay Burleigh & his Times in Edinb. Rev. 60 293 A rankling which may last for many years.

1860 W. Whitman Leaves of Grass (new ed.) 236 I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love.

1913 J. G. Brooks Amer. Syndicalism vii. 76 Amidst the ranklings at Lawrence, a citizen cried out, ‘What have we done that a pack of ignorant foreigners should hold us by the throat?’

1951 J. Crosland Old French Epic xii. 276 This hatred, caused by jealousy or the rankling of wounded pride, gave rise to a class of traitors who carried on a sort of personal vendetta against those they wished to ruin.

2006 Sunday Times (Nexis) 24 Sept. (Business section) 13 One of the most important things is that you get on, because otherwise outside issues can cause a lot of rankling.

1528 Rede me & be nott Wrothe sig. a iiij^v One rancklynge member [putrifies] the whole boddy.

1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene i. vi. sig. F5^v Two Bores with rancling malice mett.

1631 W. Gouge Gods Three Arrowes iii. §95. 363 The daily licking of his ranckling wounds.

1685 J. Dryden tr. Lucretius Conc. Nature of Love in Sylvæ 87 Perhaps the fickle fair One proves unkind, Or drops a doubtful word, that pains his mind; And leavs a ranckling jealousie behind.

1710 D. Manley Mem. Europe I. ii. 227 The real rankling Sore that lay latent and was but skin'd over by the artful Gloss Irene and Æmilius gave, was to all Intents conceal'd from Cæsar.

1771 J. Beattie Minstrel: Bk. 1st xliii. 22 Dark Error's den, whose rankling slime First gave you form!

1804 Poet Reg. 470 Beneath these butchers stalls..Where rankling offals fret in many a heap.

1874 F. W. Farrar Silence & Voices of God ix. 152 It was not the rankling wound of an enemy.

1916 C. S. Churchill Let. 6 Apr. in W. S. Churchill & C. S. Churchill Speaking for Themselves (1999) viii. 198 By taking the action you contemplate you risk a life-long rankling regret which you might never admit even to yourself.

1953 Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram 28 Feb. a3/5 The release of Sanders would wipe out a rankling wound to British pride.

1997 R. Dore Japan, Internationalism & UN Pref. p. xiii What brought that rankling discomfort to the forefront and prompted open debate about Japan's role in the world was the Gulf War.

1568 G. Turberville tr. D. Mancinus Plaine Path to Perfect Vertue sig. E6 With rankling tooth to neare Let not thy babling bite or touch The man that doth it heare.

1591 R. Wilmot Tancred & Gismund iv. i. sig. D4^v Ile fixe vpon her fathers heart full fast, And into hers, this other will I cast, Whose rankling venome shall infect them so With enuious wrath.

1632 P. Massinger & N. Field Fatall Dowry iii. sig. G5 Thou buzzing drone that 'bout my eares dost hum, To strike thy rankling sting into my heart.

1697 W. Congreve Mourning Bride iii. i. 34 Remorseless Chains..festring thy Limbs with rankling Rust.

1747 T. Gray Ode Eton Coll. 6 Jealousy with rankling Tooth, That inly gnaws the secret Heart.

1797 M. Robinson Walsingham IV. lxxiv. 65 On him no friend, no kindred smil'd, To draw from memory's wound affliction's rankling thorn!

1821 J. Baillie Columbus in Metrical Legends xlii He trode the narrow deck with pain, And oft survey'd his rankling chain.

1846 O. W. Holmes Rhymed Lesson 5 Shall I wound with satire's rankling spear?

1906 J. London White Fang ii. ii. 70 One quill he had carried away in his muzzle, where it had remained for weeks, a rankling flame, until it finally worked out.

1932 G. King Memories Southern Woman of Lett. iv. 60 I could not sleep that night for thinking of Gilder's rankling taunt.

2000 Jrnl. Soc. Archer-antiquaries 43 54/1 Rankling arrows, where the shaft was so loosely fixed as to drop off when the head buried itself in the foe, were also employed.

1860 J. B. Burke Viciss. Families 2nd Ser. 128 The high-hearted boy..ranklingly nurtured that mixture of fiercely vengeful and patriotic spirit.

1964 Economist 12 Sept. 994/1 A ranklingly embittered Indonesia.