Literary notes about vexatious (AI summary)
Vexatious is employed in literature to describe circumstances or actions that provoke persistent irritation, delay progress, or impose undue burdens. Authors use the term to capture everything from obstructive barriers in communication and travel, as seen with "vexatious hindrances" that delay correspondence and journeys [1, 2], to the frustrations of bureaucratic or legal entanglements—whether referring to vexatious litigation or oppressive regulations [3, 4, 5]. Its usage spans from personal grievances and minor everyday nuisances [6, 7] to broader societal or political obstructions that thwart initiative and progress [8, 9]. In each context, the word effectively conveys a sense of persistent annoyance that complicates the characters' lives and challenges their pursuits.
- DEAR SIR,—I have been kept away from you, I know not well how, and of these vexatious hindrances I know not when there will be an end.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson by James Boswell - On this occasion we had no vexatious delays, and in about three days Pittsburg was reached.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - Our courts are free from the vexatious litigation that fosters criticism and they are trusted as never before in history.
— from The Progressive Democracy of James M. Cox by Charles E. (Charles Eugene) Morris - Those who wished to cut timber were subjected to very complicated and vexatious regulations.
— from The Philippine Islands A Political, Geographical, Ethnographical, Social and Commercial History of the Philippine Archipelago, Embracing the Whole Period of Spanish Rule by Foreman, John, F.R.G.S. - (1) Both alike argue against these vexatious ordinances from the perishableness of meats.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon by J. B. Lightfoot - It was very vexatious, and she was heartily sorry for it;
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - A tired bookkeeper scurrying home after a vexatious hunt for his balances gets sharp scrutiny from the policeman.
— from The Modern Railroad by Edward Hungerford - " Nothing could be more ill-timed than this quarrel, or more vexatious to Leicester.
— from History of the United Netherlands, 1586-89 — Complete by John Lothrop Motley - The arbitrary and vexatious powers with which the patrols are necessarily armed, would be intolerable in a free country.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison
