exasperated
Americanadjective
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of exasperated
Explanation
It’s understandable if you get exasperated, or really frustrated, if you’re standing in the supermarket's express lane and everyone in front of you has way more than the 10-item maximum. Over the centuries, nothing much has happened to the definition of this word — the Latin original means "irritated to anger." Speaking of which, let's get back to the supermarket, a veritable hotbed of exasperated people pushing wobbly-wheeled shopping carts their children try to fill with cartoon-branded junk food, brushing past unstable store displays that come tumbling down, enduring inoffensive but flavorless supermarket music, and emerging into the cold light of day unable to remember where they parked the car.
Vocabulary lists containing exasperated
The Giver
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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Number the Stars
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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.
Exasperated travelers seethed at airports for hours and sometimes had to wait a day for the next available flight.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 31, 2025
Exasperated residents have exchanged some of the more outlandish headlines — “Alanna Gold’s Pioneertown is pretty impressive” — among themselves.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 10, 2024
Exasperated, Strohfus reached out to the state health department, which came through with one dose.
From Salon • Mar. 6, 2024
Exasperated, the driver looks around the vicinity, finding no other vehicles as the incoming danger disappears from the screen.
From Science Daily • Jan. 31, 2024
Exasperated at my stupidity, I looked up at the ceiling and moaned.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
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.
