Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
verb (used with object), ag·gra·vat·ed, ag·gra·vat·ing.
- to make worse or more severe; intensify, as anything evil, disorderly, or troublesome: to aggravate a grievance; to aggravate an illness.
- to annoy; irritate; exasperate: His questions aggravate her.
- to cause to become irritated or inflamed: The child’s constant scratching aggravated the rash.
verb (tr)
- to make (a disease, situation, problem, etc) worse or more severe
- informal to annoy; exasperate, esp by deliberate and persistent goading
1520s, “make heavy, burden down,” from past participle adjective aggravate “burdened; threatened” (late 15c.), from Latin aggravatus, past participle of aggravare “to render more troublesome,” literally “to make heavy” (see aggravation). Earlier in this sense was aggrege (late 14c.). Meaning “to make a bad thing worse” is from 1590s; that of “exasperate, annoy” is from 1610s.
To aggravate has properly only one meaning — to make (an evil) worse or more serious. [Fowler]
Related: Aggravated; aggravating. Phrase aggravating circumstances is recorded from 1790.