aggravate

Verb

Meaning

To make heavy or heavier; to add to; to increase.

To make worse, or more severe; to render less tolerable or less excusable; to make more offensive; to enhance; to intensify.

To give coloring to in description; to exaggerate; as, to aggravate circumstances.

To exasperate; to provoke; to irritate.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

Derivatives

Examples

He knows that there's no better way in the world to aggravate somebody who's trying to make it hard for you than by acting like you're not bothered. Ken Kesey

What you feel spiritually. I think a lot of that has to do with it. If you have no spiritual life, chances are everything is going to aggravate you, you're going to fly off the handle at everything and that's what I did in the past. I've kind of got that under control now. Mike Ditka

Courage enlarges, cowardice diminishes resources. In desperate straits the fears of the timid aggravate the dangers that imperil the brave. Christian Nestell Bovee

The widespread diffusion of nuclear weapons would make many nations able, and in some cases also create the pressure, to aggravate an on-going crisis, or even touch off a war between two other powers for purposes of their own. Herman Kahn

Whatever my husband's faults may be, it can only aggravate the evil for me to hear them from a stranger's lips. Anne Brontë

When you are free of the world, you can do something about it. As long as you are a prisoner of it, you are helpless to change it. On the contrary, whatever you do will aggravate the situation. Nisargadatta Maharaj

Close letter words and terms