aggravating
[ag-ruh-vey-ting]
- causing or full of aggravation: I've had an aggravating day.
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Origin of aggravating
aggravate
[ag-ruh-veyt]
- to make worse or more severe; intensify, as anything evil, disorderly, or troublesome: to aggravate a grievance; to aggravate an illness.
- to annoy; irritate; exasperate: His questions aggravate her.
- to cause to become irritated or inflamed: The child's constant scratching aggravated the rash.
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Origin of aggravate
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comSynonym study
1. 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.
Antonyms
1. alleviate.
Usage note
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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
botherprovokeirritatecomplicatemagnifyexaggerateworsenintensifyexacerbateinflameenhancedeepenheightenpesterneedlenagexasperategetpeeveteaseExamples from the Web for aggravating
Contemporary Examples
So while the poor sound quality was aggravating, it was also a signal of some weird legitimacy.
There are a lot of aggravating myths and narratives in politics.
We all know that spending time with your extended clan over the holidays can be aggravating.
It found a way to make one of the most aggravating aspects of modern American life, air travel, even more aggravating.
But after more than 10 aggravating, exorbitantly expensive and violent years, the world has pretty much had it with Afghanistan.
Historical Examples
Mrs. Wilkins, of all the aggravating women I ever came across, you are the worst.
The Universal ReciterVarious
"You are so aggravating too, my boy," said the old seaman, with unexpected placidity.
An Outcast of the IslandsJoseph Conrad
What you must do is to pay no attention to her when she is aggravating.
Marjorie Dean, College SophomorePauline Lester
For the symptoms of the night before had developed in a most aggravating way.
A Modern TomboyL. T. Meade
They are noisy, vicious, unaccommodating and aggravating to a degree.
aggravate
- to make (a disease, situation, problem, etc) worse or more severe
- informal to annoy; exasperate, esp by deliberate and persistent goading
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin aggravāre to make heavier, from gravis heavy
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for aggravating
aggravate
v.
1520s, "make heavy, burden down," from past participle adjective aggravate "burdened; threatened" (late 15c.), from Latin aggravatus, past participle of aggravare "to render more troublesome," literally "to make heavy" (see aggravation). Earlier in this sense was aggrege (late 14c.). Meaning "to make a bad thing worse" is from 1590s; that of "exasperate, annoy" is from 1610s.
To aggravate has properly only one meaning -- to make (an evil) worse or more serious. [Fowler]
Related: Aggravated; aggravating. Phrase aggravating circumstances is recorded from 1790.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper