In context

Resentment is the “number one” offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically. In dealing with resentments, we set them on paper. We listed people, institutions or principles with whom we were angry. We asked ourselves why we were angry. In most cases it was found that our self-esteem, our pocketbooks, our ambitions, our personal relationships (including sex) were hurt or threatened. So we were sore. We were “burned up.” BB p.64 ¶3

Here: Here resentment is the settled, nursed anger and sense of injury felt toward people, institutions or principles that have hurt or threatened one's self-esteem, purse, ambitions or relationships. The passage names it the "number one" offender and the root of spiritual disease.

For a reader in 1939 the word had a firm, ordinary meaning. Webster's Collegiate (5th ed., 1939 printing) defines it as "A feeling of indignant displeasure because of something regarded as a wrong or insult; umbrage." Its synonym note ranks it among dudgeon, malice, spite, grudge and rancor. There resentment is indignant displeasure, "often with animosity, esp. as excited by affront or personal injury", and a grudge is "a cherished feeling of resentment." Webster's New International (1923) says nearly the same and adds a list of obsolete senses (a plain feeling or impression, or gratitude for a favor). The 1913 Revised Unabridged also gives these obsolete senses beside the one meaning "strong displeasure; anger; hostility provoked by a wrong or injury experienced." Webster's 1828 stresses that the word is "not the sense or perception of injury, but the excitement which is the effect of it."

The sense has not moved much since. Modern dictionaries (WordNet, Wiktionary, the American Heritage) define it as anger or ill will from a felt wrong, and the obsolete 'feeling' and 'gratitude' senses are gone. The one shift is in the everyday weight of the word. To a 1939 reader it was a dictionary word for a particular, somewhat formal indignation, close to umbrage and grudge. Today it is a common word, and AA's use has made it nearly a technical term for the nursed grievance. The dictionaries do not say that the word was used this way in the Book's field of psychology or religion, so I leave that point open.

This era's sense explains why the passage can treat the word as the center of an inventory. A resentment in the Collegiate's terms is anger "regarded as" a wrong, so it rests on a judgment of the offender and not on the injury alone. The passage fits that: it asks "why we were angry" and finds that self-esteem, pocketbooks and the rest were "hurt or threatened." The 1923 synonym entry also sets the word beside grudge and rancor, the cherished and deep-seated forms. That helps account for the Book's insistence that the feeling be written down and examined and not simply felt.

Usages

• BB p.117 ¶3 “Never forget that resentment is a deadly hazard to an alcoholic.”
• BB p.66 ¶1 “It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness.”
• BB p.66 ¶3 “We saw that these resentments must be mastered, but how?”
• BB p.79 ¶2 “Because of resentment and drinking, he had not paid alimony to his first wife.”
• “A grudge is a cherished feeling of resentment” — Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Fifth Edition (1939 printing)
• “Resentment... is a deep, reflective displeasure against the conduct of the offender.” — Webster's New International Dictionary (1923 printing)
• He kept his resentment toward his former partner for years, and it colored every conversation about work. illustration, written for this note
• She felt a quiet resentment when her sister's slight went unacknowledged. illustration, written for this note
• The old resentment came back the moment he saw the man's name on the invitation. illustration, written for this note

Written by Claude (sonnet) from the dictionaries and passages of the lookup; every quotation in it was checked against them, and what could not be found was left out. A study aid, not a source.

The dictionaries of 1939

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

WordNet 3.0 (Princeton, 2006)

In the Book 58

Alcoholics Anonymous 52

• BB p.13 ¶3 …acquainted him with my problems and deficiencies. We made a list of people I had hurt or toward whom I felt resentment. I expressed my entire willingness to approach these individuals, admitting my wrong. Never was I to be…
• BB p.15 ¶1 …during which I found little work. I was not too well at the time, and was plagued by waves of self-pity and resentment. This sometimes nearly drove me back to drink, but I soon found that when all other measures failed, work…
• BB p.18 ¶1 …worthwhile in life. It engulfs all whose lives touch the sufferer’s. It brings misunderstanding, fierce resentment, financial insecurity, disgusted friends and employers, warped lives of blameless children, sad wives and…
• BB p.62 …has lost all and is locked up. Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity?
• BB p.64 ¶3 Resentment is the “number one” offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of…
• BB p.64 ¶3 …sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically. In dealing with resentments, we set them on paper. We listed people, institutions or principles with whom we were angry. We asked…
• BB p.66 ¶1 It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours…
• BB p.66 ¶1 …But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from…
• BB p.66 ¶3 …wrongdoing of others, fancied or real, had power to actually kill. How could we escape? We saw that these resentments must be mastered, but how? We could not wish them away any more than alcohol.
• BB p.68 ¶1 We reviewed our fears thoroughly. We put them on paper, even though we had no resentment in connection with them. We asked ourselves why we had them. Wasn’t it because self-reliance failed us?…
• BB p.70 ¶3 …have been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down a lot. We have listed and analyzed our resentments. We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. We have commenced to see their terrible…
• BB p.79 ¶2 …needlessly sacrifice others to save himself from the alcoholic pit. A man we know had remarried. Because of resentment and drinking, he had not paid alimony to his first wife. She was furious. She went to court and got an order…
• BB p.84 ¶1 …not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately…
• BB p.100 ¶2 …that he has been a very sick person and should be treated accordingly. You should warn against arousing resentment or jealousy. You should point out that his defects of character are not going to disappear overnight. Show…
• BB p.105 driven to maudlin sympathy, to bitter resentment. Some of us veered from extreme to extreme, ever hoping that one day our loved ones would be themselves once…
• BB p.117 ¶3 Some of the snags you will encounter are irritation, hurt feelings and resentments. Your husband will sometimes be unreasonable and you will want to criticize. Starting from a speck on the…
• BB p.117 ¶3 …husband. Often you must carry the burden of avoiding them or keeping them under control. Never forget that resentment is a deadly hazard to an alcoholic. We do not mean that you have to agree with your husband whenever there…
• BB p.118 ¶4 Another feeling we are very likely to entertain is one of resentment that love and loyalty could not cure our husbands of alcoholism. We do not like the thought that the…
• BB p.126 ¶2 …he drank so much, and to show his contrition for what they suffered. But dad doesn’t give freely of himself. Resentment grows. He becomes still less communicative. Sometimes he explodes over a trifle. The family is mystified.…
• BB p.145 ¶3 The greatest enemies of us alcoholics are resentment, jealousy, envy, frustration, and fear. Wherever men are gathered together in business there will be…

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions 6

• 12&12 p.46 our resentments are the “right kind.” We aren’t the guilty ones. They are!
• 12&12 p.47 ¶2 But in A.A. we slowly learned that something had to be done about our vengeful resentments, self-pity, and unwarranted pride. We had to see that every time we played the big shot, we turned people…
• 12&12 p.90 ¶3 Few people have been more victimized by resentments than have we alcoholics. It mattered little whether our resentments were justified or not. A burst of temper…
• 12&12 p.90 ¶3 Few people have been more victimized by resentments than have we alcoholics. It mattered little whether our resentments were justified or not. A burst of temper could spoil a day, and a well-nursed grudge could make us miserably…
• 12&12 p.135 …“bleeding deacons.” The elder statesman is the one who sees the wisdom of the group’s decision, who holds no resentment over his reduced status, whose judgment, fortified by considerable experience, is sound, and who is willing…
• 12&12 p.143 ¶3 A great wave of outraged resentment engulfed the meeting, sweeping every member to a single resolve: “Out he goes!”

Linked from

• BB p.64 ¶3 “Resentment”