SPLEEN


Meaning of SPLEEN in English

spleen /spliːn/ BrE AmE noun

[ Date: 1200-1300 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: esplen , from Latin splen , from Greek ]

1 . [countable] an organ near your stomach that controls the quality of your blood

2 . [uncountable] formal anger, especially unreasonable or unfair anger:

Obviously you’re annoyed, but that doesn’t give you the right to vent your spleen on me (=get angry with me) .

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THESAURUS

▪ anger a strong emotion that you feel because someone has behaved badly or because a situation seems bad or unfair:

Andrea still feels a lot of anger towards her mom, who left when she was a little girl.

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I’ve said some things in anger that have almost cost me my marriage.

▪ annoyance slight anger or impatience:

He expressed annoyance at the way his comments had been misinterpreted.

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The meetings were held in secret, much to the annoyance of some members of Congress.

▪ irritation a feeling of being annoyed and impatient, especially because something keeps happening or someone keeps saying something:

He could not hide his irritation at her persistent questioning.

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Unwanted sales calls are a source of irritation for many people.

▪ frustration a feeling of being annoyed, especially because you cannot do what you want or because you cannot change or control a situation:

You can imagine my frustration when I found out that the next bus didn’t leave till 4 hours later.

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There is a growing sense of frustration over the situation in Burma.

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The government has expressed frustration at the slow legal process.

▪ exasperation a feeling of being very annoyed because you cannot control a situation, learn to do something, or understand something, even though you are trying very hard:

Isaac sighed in exasperation.

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Exasperation at the team’s lack of success was evident among the fans.

▪ resentment anger because you think you are being treated badly or unfairly:

The sudden increase in the numbers of immigrants has caused resentment among local people.

▪ indignation anger and surprise about an unfair situation:

His voice sounded full of indignation.

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The scandal caused righteous indignation among opposition politicians.

▪ ill/bad feeling anger between two people because of something that has happened:

I had no ill feeling towards him.

▪ rancour British English , rancor American English formal a feeling of anger and hatred towards someone who you cannot forgive because they harmed you in the past:

Even though he had lost the court case, he had shown no rancour.

▪ spleen formal anger, especially anger that is unreasonable:

He vented his spleen (=said why he was angry) against the airline in an article in the Times.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.