aggravate
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
to make a bad situation, an injury, or a problem even worse.
to increase the severity, intensity, or offensiveness of a negative condition or situation.
Simple“Running on a sore ankle will only aggravate the injury.”
In context“The lack of clear communication between the two departments only served to aggravate the existing tensions regarding the budget cuts.”
UsageOften used with physical ailments or social problems as the object.
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
to make someone feel annoyed or impatient.
to exasperate or provoke a person to the point of irritation.
Simple“It really aggravates me when people talk loudly during a movie.”
In context“The constant delays and lack of updates from the airline began to seriously aggravate the stranded passengers.”
Teacher's tipWhile common in speech, some traditionalists prefer 'irritate' for people and reserve 'aggravate' for situations.
PitfallHis constant whistling aggravated to me. His constant whistling aggravated me.Aggravate is a transitive verb and does not take the preposition 'to'.
“Experts warn that the earthquake may aggravate the deep-rooted problems Buenaventura has struggled with for years.”
“They also experience constipation and likely also have increased protein fermentation that may aggravate health conditions," concludes Dragsted, senior author of the paper.”
The adjective is first attested in 1471 in Middle English, the verb in 1530; from Latin aggravātus, perfect passive participle of aggravō (“to add to the weight of, make worse, oppress, annoy”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ad- (“to”) + gravō (“to make heavy”), from gravis (“heavy”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). See grave and compare aggrieve and aggrege. Participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.