Library / English Dictionary

AGGRAVATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make worse

Example:

This drug aggravates the pain

Synonyms:

aggravate; exacerbate; exasperate; worsen

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "aggravate" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "aggravate"):

irritate (excite to an abnormal condition, or chafe or inflame)

inflame (cause inflammation in)

cheapen; degrade (lower the grade of something; reduce its worth)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

aggravation (action that makes a problem or a disease (or its symptoms) worse)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Exasperate or irritate

Synonyms:

aggravate; exacerbate; exasperate

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "aggravate" is one way to...):

anger (make angry)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

aggravation (unfriendly behavior that causes anger or resentment)

aggravation (an exasperated feeling of annoyance)

aggravator (an unpleasant person who is annoying or exasperating)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Under any circumstances it would have been an unwelcome alliance; but to have it so clandestinely formed, and such a period chosen for its completion, placed Julia's feelings in a most unfavourable light, and severely aggravated the folly of her choice.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

How can you be so aggravating, said my mother, shedding more tears than before, as to talk in such an unjust manner!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

If it was not fair on Monday, the young ladies were to come on Tuesday, an arrangement which aggravated Jo and Hannah to the last degree.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I slept about two hours, and dreamt I was at home with my wife and children, which aggravated my sorrows when I awaked, and found myself alone in a vast room, between two and three hundred feet wide, and above two hundred high, lying in a bed twenty yards wide.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“I suppose not,” returned my aunt, rather grudging the admission; “but it's very aggravating. However, she's Barkis now. That's some comfort. Barkis is uncommonly fond of you, Trot.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Her tone and manner angered Amy, who began to put her boots on, saying, in her most aggravating way, "I shall go. Meg says I may, and if I pay for myself, Laurie hasn't anything to do with it."

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

They shall be aggravated.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She was rather surprised, therefore, when the silence remained unbroken, and Jo assumed a patronizing air, which decidedly aggravated Meg, who in turn assumed an air of dignified reserve and devoted herself to her mother.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was an aggravating circumstance in the case that he had no idea of this, but conceived that he was making me amends in every new discovery: not to say, heaping obligations on my head.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)