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aggravate

verb
/ˈæɡ.ɹə.veɪ̯t/

Etymology

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. By surface analysis, ag- + grave (“heavy”) + -ate (“verb suffix”).

  1. learned borrowing from aggravātus

Definitions

  1. To make (an offence) worse or more severe

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

    • 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
    • The defense made by the prisoner's counsel did rather aggravate than extenuate his crime.

  2. To make (any bad thing) worse.

    • to aggravate my woes.
    • […] to aggravate the horrors of the scene

  3. To give extra weight or intensity to

    To give extra weight or intensity to; to exaggerate, to magnify.

    • He aggravated the story.
  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

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

      • In order to lighten the crown still further, they aggravated responsibility on ministers of state.

    2. To exasperate

      To exasperate; to provoke or irritate.

      • If both were to aggravate her parents, as my brother and sister do mine.
      • Ben Bella was aggravated by having to express himself in French because the Egyptians were unable to understand his Arabic.

    3. Aggravated.

    4. Loaded, burdened, weighed down.

    5. Heightened, intensified.

    6. Under ecclesiastical censure, excommunicated.

The neighborhood

Derived

aggravatable, aggravative, aggravator, aggro, overaggravate, reaggravate

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for aggravate. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA