aggravate

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English

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Etymology

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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

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  • IPA(key): /ˈæɡ.ɹə.veɪ̯t/
  • Audio (UK):(file)

Verb

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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. [from 16th c.]
    • 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], 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. [from 16th c.]
    Synonym: exacerbate
  3. (now rare) To give extra weight or intensity to; to exaggerate, to magnify. [from 16th c.]
    He aggravated the story.
  4. (obsolete) To pile or heap (something heavy or onerous) on or upon someone. [16th–18th c.]
    • 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. [from 16th c.]
    • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →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.

Usage notes

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  • 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

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Italian

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Etymology 1

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Verb

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aggravate

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

Etymology 2

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Participle

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aggravate f pl

  1. feminine plural of aggravato

Anagrams

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Latin

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Verb

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aggravāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of aggravō
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