Ruffles feathers is an idiom that is used to describe a situation where someone's feelings are hurt or they are upset. The crossword solutions for this term are RILES (5 letters), vexes (5 letters), dusts (5 letters), and irks (4 letters). RILES means to annoy or irritate, vexes means to cause distress or frustration, dusts means to make something insignificant, and irks means to annoy or bother. All of these words can be used to describe the feeling of being hurt or upset.