(transitive or intransitive) To cause irritation, bitterness or acrimony.
My colleague's gratuitous criticism still rankles with me.
1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter XX, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks16/1600641.txt
I stood trembling with agony for the spear was rankling in the wound.
(intransitive) To fester.
a splinter rankles in the flesh
noun
(rare) A festering, embittering object or condition, either mental, or a physical sore or ulcer.