Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Annoyed, frustrated, or worried: Feeling or showing irritation, distress, or anxiety, often due to a persistent problem or minor annoyance.
   • Much debated or difficult to resolve: Describing a problem, question, or issue that is complicated, contentious, and causes ongoing difficulty or dispute.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective (Feeling annoyed):
  • The manager was vexed by the constant delays in the project.
  • She gave a vexed sigh after reading the confusing email.
• Adjective (Describing a difficult issue):
  • The vexed question of climate policy was debated for hours.
  • Tax reform remains a vexed issue for the government.

Advanced Usage

• "to be vexed at/about/with something": To be annoyed or worried by a specific thing.
  • He was deeply vexed about the mistake in the report.
• "much-vexed": An intensifier used before a noun to emphasize that an issue is long-standing and troublesome.
  • The committee finally addressed the much-vexed problem of funding.

Variants and Related Words

• Vex (verb): To annoy, worry, or frustrate someone.
  • The complex instructions vexed the new students.
• Vexation (noun): The state of being annoyed, worried, or frustrated, or the thing that causes this feeling.
  • To his great vexation, the flight was canceled.
• Vexing (adjective): Causing annoyance, worry, or frustration.
  • It was a vexing problem with no easy solution.

Synonyms

• Annoyed: Slightly angry or irritated.
• Irritated: Showing or feeling slight anger; annoyed.
• Harassed: Feeling strained or stressed due to persistent demands or problems.
• Troubled: Worried or anxious.
• Contentious: Causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial (for the issue-related meaning).

Related Phrases

• A vexed question: A problem or issue that is very difficult to solve and causes much discussion or argument.
  • The origin of the universe is a vexed question for scientists and philosophers.

Related Idioms

• None that use "vexed" as the core, standalone word. (Common idioms often use the verb "vex," such as "vexed to the heart," meaning deeply troubled or annoyed.)

Adjective

1. causing difficulty in finding an answer or solution; much disputed
   • the vexed issue of priorities
   • we live in vexed and troubled times
2. troubled persistently especially with petty annoyances
   • harassed working mothers
   • a harried expression
   • her poor pestered father had to endure her constant interruptions
   • the vexed parents of an unruly teenager