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- Dictionaryaggravate/ˈaɡrəveɪt/
verb
- 1. make (a problem, injury, or offence) worse or more serious: "military action would only aggravate the situation" Similar Opposite
- 2. annoy or exasperate. informal Similar Opposite
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The meaning of AGGRAVATE is to make (something) worse, more serious, or more severe : to intensify (something) unpleasantly. How to use aggravate in a sentence. Common Uses of Aggravate, Aggravation, and Aggravating: Usage Guide.
to make a bad situation worse: Attempts to restrict parking in the city centre have further aggravated the problem of traffic congestion. to make a disease worse: The treatment only aggravated the condition. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases. Deteriorating and making worse.
Aggravate definition: to make worse or more severe; intensify, as anything evil, disorderly, or troublesome. See examples of AGGRAVATE used in a sentence.
Aggravate means to make something worse, and irritate is to annoy. But if you use aggravate to mean "annoy," no one will notice. That battle has been lost in all but the most formal writing.
to make a bad situation worse: Attempts to restrict parking in the city center have further aggravated the problem of traffic congestion. to make a disease worse: The treatment only aggravated the condition. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases. Deteriorating and making worse.
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.
aggravate something to make an illness or a bad or unpleasant situation worse synonym worsen. Pollution can aggravate asthma. Military intervention will only aggravate the conflict even further.
To make worse, or more severe; to render less tolerable or less excusable; to make more offensive; to enhance; to intensify. To aggravate my woes. —Alexander Pope. To aggravate the horrors of the scene. —William H. Prescott. The defense made by the prisoner's counsel did rather aggravate than extenuate his crime. —Addison. Wiktionary.
1. To make worse or more troublesome: aggravate political tensions; aggravate a medical condition. 2. To annoy or exasperate: The child's whining aggravated me. See Synonyms at annoy. [Latin aggravāre, aggravāt- : ad-, ad- + gravāre, to burden (from gravis, heavy; see g w erə- in Indo-European roots).] ag′gra·vat′ing·ly adv. ag′gra·va′tive adj.
Synonyms for AGGRAVATE: annoy, irritate, bother, bug, persecute, exasperate, get, infuriate; Antonyms of AGGRAVATE: appease, placate, pacify, oblige, conciliate, please, satisfy, delight.
