Definition of "vex" []

• To annoy, as with petty importunities; bother. See Synonyms at annoy. (verb-transitive)
• To cause perplexity in; puzzle. (verb-transitive)
• To bring distress or suffering to; plague or afflict. (verb-transitive)
• To debate or discuss (a question, for example) at length. (verb-transitive)
• To toss about or shake up. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The word vex with us means to provoke, irritate, by petty provocations."
• "For she held that a greater power than Setebos had made the world, leaving Setebos merely to "vex" it; while he contends that whoever made the world and its weakness, did so for the pleasure of vexing it himself; and that this greater power, the "Quiet," if it really exists, is above pain or pleasure, and had no motive for such a proceeding."
• ""vex," therefore, is the heightening of grieving by a provocation unto anger and indignation: which sense is suited to the place and matter treated of, though the word signify no more but to "grieve;" and so it is rendered by lupeo, Gen. xlv."