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exasperate

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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First attested in 1534; borrowed from Latin exasperātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin exasperō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ex (“out of; thoroughly”) + asperō (“to make rough”), from asper (“rough”). Participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

Verb

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exasperate (third-person singular simple present exasperates, present participle exasperating, simple past and past participle exasperated)

  1. (transitive) To tax the patience of; irk, frustrate, vex, provoke, annoy; to make angry.
    Synonyms: aggravate, rile; see also Thesaurus:annoy
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:
      And this report
      Hath so exasperate [sic] the king that he
      Prepares for some attempt of war.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
      The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.
    • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
      Beadle goes into various shops and parlours, examining the inhabitants; always shutting the door first, and by exclusion, delay, and general idiotcy, exasperating the public.
    • 1987 January 5, “Woman of the Year: Corazon Aquino”, in Time:
      [S]he exasperates her security men by acting as if she were protected by some invisible shield.
    • 2007 June 4, “Loyal Mail”, in Times Online, UK, retrieved 7 October 2010:
      News that Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, is set to receive a bumper bonus will exasperate postal workers.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Adjective

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exasperate (comparative more exasperate, superlative most exasperate) (obsolete)

  1. (as a participle) Exasperated.
  2. Exasperated; embittered.
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See also

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References

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Etymology 2

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A pun on the usual sense of exasperate (to annoy) and aspirate.

Verb

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exasperate (third-person singular simple present exasperates, present participle exasperating, simple past and past participle exasperated)

  1. (UK, slang, humorous, obsolete) To overaspirate the letter h, or to aspirate it whenever it begins a word, once a common form of hypercorrection.
    • quoted (from Punch magazine) in 2005, David Crystal, The Stories of English
      COCKNEY HOBSERVATION. — Cockneys are not the only people who drop or exasperate the 'h's.' It is done by common people in the provinces, and you may laugh at them for it.
Usage notes
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References
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  • John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary

Ido

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /eksaspeˈrate/, /eɡzaspeˈrate/

Verb

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exasperate

  1. adverbial present passive participle of exasperar

Latin

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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exasperāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of exasperō

Spanish

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Verb

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exasperate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of exasperar combined with te
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