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aggravate. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
aggravate, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
aggravate in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
aggravate you have here. The definition of the word
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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.
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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , 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.
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.
He aggravated the story.
- (obsolete) To pile or heap (something heavy or onerous) on or upon someone.
1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford, published 2009, page 28:In order to lighten the crown still further, they aggravated responsibility on ministers of state.
- (now chiefly colloquial) To exasperate; to provoke or irritate.
1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 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
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
To make worse, or more severe
- Bulgarian: влошавам (bg) (vlošavam), утежнявам (bg) (utežnjavam)
- Catalan: agreujar (ca)
- Czech: zhoršit (cs) pf, ztížit pf, zostřit pf
- Danish: forværre (da), f (da)
- Dutch: verergeren (nl)
- Finnish: pahentaa (fi)
- French: aggraver (fr)
- German: verschlimmern (de), erschweren (de)
- Hungarian: súlyosbít (hu)
- Latin: aggravō
- Malayalam: വഷളാക്കുക (vaṣaḷākkuka)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: forverre
- Nynorsk: forverre
- Occitan: agravar
- Portuguese: agravar (pt)
- Russian: обостря́ть (ru) impf (obostrjátʹ), обостри́ть (ru) pf (obostrítʹ), усугубля́ть (ru) impf (usugubljátʹ), усугуби́ть (ru) pf (usugubítʹ), отягощать (ru) impf (otjagoščatʹ), ухудшать (ru) impf (uxudšatʹ)
- Spanish: agravar (es), empeorar (es)
- Ukrainian: погіршувати (pohiršuvaty), загострювати (zahostrjuvaty)
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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:
- second-person plural present indicative
- second-person plural imperative
Etymology 2
Participle
aggravate f pl
- feminine plural of aggravato
Anagrams
Latin
Verb
aggravāte
- second-person plural present active imperative of aggravō