aggravate
English
Etymology
From Latin aggravatus, past participle of aggravare (“to add to the weight of, make worse, oppress, annoy”), from ad (“to”) + gravare (“to make heavy”), from gravis (“heavy”). See grave and compare aggrieve and aggrege.
Pronunciation
Verb
aggravate (third-person singular simple present aggravates, present participle aggravating, simple past and past participle aggravated)
- To make (an offence) worse or more severe; to increase in offensiveness or heinousness. [from 16th c.]
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 23, column 2:
- Once more, the more to aggrauate the note,
With a foule Traitors name ſtuffe I thy throte,
And wiſh (ſo pleaſe my Soueraigne) ere I moue,
What my tong ſpeaks, my right drawn ſword may proue
- 1709 Joseph Addison, The Tatler
- The defense made by the prisoner's counsel did rather aggravate than extenuate his crime.
- (by extension) To make worse; to exacerbate. [from 16th c.]
- Template:RQ:Pope Odyssey
- 1837, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic
- […] to aggravate the horrors of the scene
- (now rare) To give extra weight or intensity to; to exaggerate, to magnify. [from 16th c.]
- He aggravated the story.
- (obsolete) To pile or heap (something heavy or onerous) on or upon someone. [16th–18th c.]
- 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford 2009, p. 28:
- In order to lighten the crown still further, they aggravated responsibility on ministers of state.
- 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford 2009, p. 28:
- (now chiefly colloquial) To exasperate; to provoke or irritate. [from 16th c.]
- 1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:
- If both were to aggravate her parents, as my brother and sister do mine.
- 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 85:
- Ben Bella was aggravated by having to express himself in French because the Egyptians were unable to understand his Arabic.
Usage notes
Although the meaning "to exasperate, to annoy" has been in continuous usage since the 16th 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.
Synonyms
- (to make worse): heighten, intensify, increase, magnify, exaggerate, exacerbate
- (to exasperate): provoke, irritate, exasperate
- See also Thesaurus:annoy
Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
To make worse, or more severe
|
To give coloring to in description; to exaggerate; as, to aggravate circumstances
|
To exasperate; to provoke; to irritate
|
Further reading
- “aggravate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “aggravate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Italian
Etymology 1
Verb
aggravate
- inflection of aggravare:
Etymology 2
Participle
aggravate f pl
Anagrams
Latin
Verb
(deprecated template usage) aggravāte
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷreh₂-
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with rare senses
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English colloquialisms
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian verb forms
- Italian past participle forms
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin verb forms