Verb

(en verb)

To make angry.

To make insane; to inflame with passion.

(obsolete) To become furious.

* {{quote-book, year=1855, title=Westward Ho!, author=Charles Kingsley citation

, passage=The rascal saw his advantage, and began a fierce harangue against the heretic strangers. As he maddened , his hearers maddened; the savage nature, capricious as a child's, flashed out in wild suspicion. Women yelled, men scowled, and ran hastily to their huts for bows and blow-guns.}}

* {{quote-book, year=1870, title=Irish folk lore, author=John O'Hanlon, page=71 citation

, passage=And as he maddened at the thought, honest Fergus, too, forgot himself, and added in an excited strain, " I wish one end o' the hog's puddin' was sthuck in yer nose, you foolish craythur!"}}

Verb

(es)

To trouble aggressively, to harass.

* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts XII:

In that tyme Herode the kynge layed hondes on certayne of the congregacion, to vexe them.

To annoy, irritate.

Billy's professor was vexed by his continued failure to improve his grades.

To cause (mental) suffering to; to distress.

(rare) To twist, to weave.

* Dryden

some English wool, vexed in a Belgian loom

(obsolete) To be irritated; to fret.

(Chapman)

To toss back and forth; to agitate; to disquiet.

* Alexander Pope

White curl the waves, and the vexed ocean roars.