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Vex vs Scourge - What's the difference?

vex | scourge | Related terms |

As verbs the difference between vex and scourge

is that vex is to trouble aggressively, to harass while scourge is to strike with a scourge, to flog.

As nouns the difference between vex and scourge

is that vex is initialism of w:Venus Express|Venus Express|lang=en while scourge is a source of persistent trouble such as pestilence that causes pain and suffering or widespread destruction.

vex

English

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.

    Quotations

    * (English Citations of "vex")

    Synonyms

    * (to annoy) agitate, irritate * (to cause mental suffering) afflict, torment

    Derived terms

    * vexed * vexer * vexingly * vexation * vexatious

    scourge

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) A source of persistent trouble such as pestilence that causes pain and suffering or widespread destruction.
  • A means to inflict such pain or destruction.
  • * Shakespeare
    • What scourge for perjury / Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty
    • , date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 ([…]): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}
  • A whip, often of leather.
  • * Chapman
    • Up to coach then goes / The observed maid, takes both the scourge and reins.

    Verb

  • To strike with a scourge , to flog.

    • See also

    * (pedia)