[f. the vb.]
1. Sc. A cause (or state) of vexation or grief.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxvi. It was a sair vex and grief to a’ her kith and kin. Ibid. (1824), St. Ronan’s, ii. That is another vex to auld folk such as me.
1877. G. Macdonald, Marquis of Lossie, iii. Her man’s in a sair vex. Ibid. (1882), Castle Warlock, xlix. A sair vex it wad be to mony a puir body like mysel’ to lowse the richt o’ ’t.
2. Distressing or vexing commotion.
1862. R. S. Hawker, in Life (1905), xvii. 393. The Vex of the coming Confirmation is now great.
1866. Alger, Solit. Nat. & Man, IV. 412. Let trust sink in peace beneath the struggling vex of mortality.
