aggravate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make worse or more severe; intensify, as anything evil, disorderly, or troublesome.
to aggravate a grievance; to aggravate an illness.
- Antonyms:
- alleviate
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to annoy; irritate; exasperate.
His questions aggravate her.
-
to cause to become irritated or inflamed.
The child's constant scratching aggravated the rash.
verb
-
to make (a disease, situation, problem, etc) worse or more severe
-
informal to annoy; exasperate, esp by deliberate and persistent goading
Usage
The two most common senses of aggravate are “to make worse” and “to annoy or exasperate.” Both senses first appeared in the early 17th century at almost the same time; the corresponding two senses of the noun aggravation also appeared then. Both senses of aggravate and aggravation have been standard since then. The use of aggravate to mean “annoy” is sometimes objected to because it departs from the etymological meaning “to make heavier,” and in formal speech and writing the sense “annoy” is somewhat less frequent than “to make worse.” The noun aggravation meaning “annoyance” occurs in all types of speech and writing.
Related Words
Aggravate, intensify both mean to increase in degree. To aggravate is to make more serious or more grave: to aggravate a danger, an offense, a wound. To intensify is perceptibly to increase intensity, force, energy, vividness, etc.: to intensify heat, color, rage.
Other Word Forms
- aggravating adjective
- aggravation noun
- aggravative adjective
- aggravator noun
- overaggravate verb (used with object)
- preaggravate verb (used with object)
- reaggravate verb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of aggravate
1425–75; late Middle English < Latin aggravātus (past participle of aggravāre ), equivalent to ag- ag- + grav- ( grave 2 ) + -ātus -ate 1; aggrieve
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Police initially sought charges of aggravated murder but later downgraded them to negligent homicide.
From Barron's
It’s all fittingly itchy for literature’s most aggravating couple and a story that chafes against the convention that love wins — or even that love is good.
From Los Angeles Times
An "aggravated corruption" inquiry has been launched by the Norwegian economic crime unit Økokrim, police announced on Monday.
From BBC
On Thursday, Norway’s police opened an investigation into former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland for suspected “aggravated corruption” based on information in the released Epstein files.
They argued the seizure was therefore "heavily aggravated by the circumstances and appears to have had a doubtful or improper motive".
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
