aggravate

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.

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ˈæɡ.ɹə.veɪ̯t/

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• (adjective) IPA^(key): /ˈæɡɹəvət/

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

1. To make (an offence) worse or more severe; to increase in offensiveness or heinousness.

   Synonyms: add insult to injury, twist the knife; see also Thesaurus:make matters worse

   Antonyms: pour oil on troubled waters, alleviate

   • 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.

2. (by extension) To make (any bad thing) worse.

   Synonyms: exacerbate; see also Thesaurus:aggravate

   Antonyms: alleviate, mitigate

   • 1726, Homer, “Book XVI”, in , transl., The Odyssey of Homer. , volume IV, London: Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

     to aggravate my woes.

   • 1837, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic:

     to aggravate the horrors of the scene

3. (now rare) To give extra weight or intensity to; to exaggerate, to magnify.

   Synonyms: heighten, intensify, increase, magnify; see also Thesaurus:increase

   He aggravated the story.

4. (obsolete) To pile or heap (something heavy or onerous) on or upon someone.

   Synonyms: dogpile, heap on, pile on

   • 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.

5. (now chiefly colloquial; often proscribed; see usage notes) To exasperate; to provoke or irritate.

   Synonyms: provoke, irritate, exasperate; see also Thesaurus:annoy

   • 1748, , Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: , volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: S Richardson;  y Andrew Millar, over-against Catharine-street in the Strand; y J and J Rivington, in St. Paul’s Church-yard; nd by J. Leake, at Bath.">…], →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, published 2006, page 85:

     Ben Bella was aggravated by having to express himself in French because the Egyptians were unable to understand his Arabic.

• 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.

• aggravation

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

1. (as a participle) Aggravated.
2. Loaded, burdened, weighed down.
3. (in a bad sense) Heightened, intensified.
4. (religion) Under ecclesiastical censure, excommunicated.

• “aggravate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “aggravate”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

aggravate

1. inflection of aggravare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

aggravate f pl

1. feminine plural of aggravato

• aggrevata

aggravāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of aggravō