aggravate

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

From Latin aggravatus, past participle of aggravare (“‘to add to the weight of, make worse, oppress, annoy’”) < ad (“‘to’”) + gravare (“‘to make heavy’”) < gravis (“‘heavy’”). See grave and compare aggrieve and aggredge.

[edit] Pronunciation

• (WEAE) IPA: /ˈæg.rə.vet/

[edit] Verb

to aggravate (third-person singular simple present aggravates, present participle aggravating, simple past and past participle aggravated)

1. 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.

2. To give coloring to in description; to exaggerate; as, to aggravate circumstances. — William Paley.
3. (formerly colloquial and proscribed) To exasperate; to provoke; to irritate.

   If both were to aggravate her parents, as my brother and sister do mine. — Samuel Richardson Clarissa.

[edit] Usage notes

• Although the meaning "to exasperate, to annoy" has been in continuous usage since the 17th century, a large number of usage mavens have contested it since the 1870s. Opinions have swayed from this proscription since 1965, but it still garners disapproval in Garner's Modern American Usage (2009), at least for formal writing.

[edit] Synonyms

• heighten; intensify; increase; magnify; exaggerate; provoke; irritate; exasperate
• See also Wikisaurus:annoy

[edit] Related terms

• aggravation

[edit] Translations

[edit] External links

• aggravate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• aggravate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

[edit] Italian

[edit] Verb

aggravate

1. Second-person plural present tense of aggravare.
2. Second-person plural imperative of aggravare.
3. Feminine plural of aggravato.