Meaning

2 senses

  1. (transitive)To exasperate; to irritate.

  2. (transitive)To make bitter or sour.

    make sour or bitter

Translations

2 languages

Origin

From Latin acerbātus, perfect passive participle of acerbō (“make bitter”), from acerbus (

From Latin acerbātus, perfect passive participle of acerbō (“make bitter”), from acerbus (“bitter”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

acerbates, acerbating, acerbated, acerbated
Base formacerbate · to acerbate
3rd person singularacerbates
Present participleacerbating
Past simpleacerbated
Past participleacerbated

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theyacerbate
he, she, itacerbates

Past simpleLesson

all personsacerbated

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave acerbated
he, she, ithas acerbated

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill acerbate

Synonyms

4 synonyms
exasperate:provokeC1
make bitter:sourB1embitter
Close in meaning

Word family

3 related words
Relatedacerbity
Derivedacerbationexacerbate

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
aceaceracesacetaminophenacetoneacetylene
acerbate — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto