Aggravate
['ægrəveɪt] or ['æɡrəvet]
Definition
(v. t.) To make heavy or heavier; to add to; to increase.
(v. t.) To make worse, or more severe; to render less tolerable or less excusable; to make more offensive; to enhance; to intensify.
(v. t.) To give coloring to in description; to exaggerate; as, to aggravate circumstances.
(v. t.) To exasperate; to provoke; to irritate.
Checker: Uriah
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Heighten (in evil), increase, make worse.[2]. Exaggerate, overstate, magnify.[3]. [Of questionable propriety.] Provoke, irritate, exasperate, enrage.
Checked by Elaine
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Exasperate, provoke, wound, heighten, intensify, irritate, make_worse,increase, enhance_embitter, magnify
ANT:Soothe, conciliate, assuage, diminish, palliate, neutralize, soften, lessen,alleviate, attenuate, mitigate
Editor: Seth
Definition
v.t. to make worse: to provoke.—adj. Ag′gravating.—adv. Ag′gravatingly.—n. Aggravā′tion a making worse: any quality or circumstance which makes a thing worse: an exaggeration.
Typist: Margery
Examples
- But this only tended to aggravate. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Now go away, Raddle, there's a good soul, or you'll only aggravate her. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- It would please him, if he thought it would aggravate 'Shelby's folks,' as he calls 'em. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- The energy which had at once supported him under his old sufferings and aggravated their sharpness, had been gradually restored to him. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- Then Osborne had the intolerable sense of former benefits to goad and irritate him: these are always a cause of hostility aggravated. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- They shall be aggravated. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- At all hours of the day and night the sailors in the forecastle amused themselves and aggravated us by burlesquing our visit to royalty. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- A robbery of a daring and aggravated nature occasioned a vigilance of pursuit, and a strictness of search, they had not calculated on. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- And so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme form of liberty? Plato. The Republic.
- The cold that followed was of an aggravated kind, and it has now brought with it the worst consequence--fever. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Don't talk to me, you aggravating thing, don't! Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- The situation seemed desperate, and was more aggravating because nothing could be done until Sherman should get up. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- It was very aggravating; but, throughout the interview, Joe persisted in addressing Me instead of Miss Havisham. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- He was in his usual room, his usual chair, and his usual aggravating state of mind and body. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Her tone and manner angered Amy, who began to put her boots on, saying, in her most aggravating way, I shall go. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- Ma, pray don't sit staring at me in that intensely aggravating manner! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- You're a scolding, unjust, abusive, aggravating, bad old creature! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- But experience has shown that the taboo will not solve moral and social questions--that nine times out of ten it aggravates the disease. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- No theory of education that aggravates this danger is consistent with national well-being. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- In other countries, the system of taxation, instead of alleviating, aggravates this inequality. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Typist: Trevor