rile
/rʌɪl
/verb [with object]
1 informal Make (someone) annoyed or irritated: he has been riled by suggestions that his Arsenal future is in doubt...
- Certainly, when she was riled up enough about something she became nearly as intimidating as Jess.
- She looked so calm and relaxed while I was riled up inside.
- Alec had always been more patient than most, but if he was riled up, there was no changing his mind.
Synonyms
irritate, annoy, bother, vex, provoke, displease, upset, offend, affront, anger, exasperate, infuriate, gall, irk, get/put someone's back up, disgruntle, pique, rankle with, nettle, needle, ruffle, get on someone's nerves, ruffle someone's feathers, make someone's hackles rise, raise someone's hackles, rub up the wrong way
informal peeve, aggravate, miff, get, get to, bug, get under someone's skin, get in someone's hair, get up someone's nose, hack off, get someone's goat
British informal nark, get on someone's wick, give someone the hump, wind up, get across
North American informal tick off, rankle, ride, gravel, bum out
New Zealand informal rark
vulgar slang piss off
British vulgar slang get on someone's tits
rare exacerbate, hump, rasp
2North American Make (water) turbulent or muddy: he’d been drinking sweet, clear water from a well, and now that water had been muddied and riled...
- It was expected that the heavy rain would rile the water and drive the trout farther. upstream
- The water was riled by the wind and waves and I did not feel like a morning swim in the cloudy water.
Origin
Early 19th century: variant of roil.
Rile ‘to anger’ and roil ‘to anger or to churn’ (late 16th century) are both the same word probably from Old French ruiler ‘mix mortar’.