Meaning

5 senses

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

    verschlimmern, erschweren

    обостря́тьobostrjátʹ, обостри́тьobostrítʹ, усугубля́тьusugubljátʹ

    погіршуватиpohiršuvaty, загострюватиzahostrjuvaty

    make worse

  2. (broadly)To make (any bad thing) worse.

  3. (colloquial, often, proscribed)To exasperate; to provoke or irritate.

    ärgern, verbittern

    раздража́тьrazdražátʹ

    дратуватиdratuvaty

    exasperate or irritate

  4. (archaic)To give extra weight or intensity to; to exaggerate, to magnify.

    He aggravated the story.

    усложня́тьusložnjátʹ

    ускладнюватиuskladnjuvaty, обтяжуватиobtjažuvaty

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

Examples

39 sentences

  1. Tom was arrested for aggravated assault.

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  2. Tom currently faces charges of aggravated assault.

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  3. It really aggravated me.

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  4. Stop aggravating me.

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  5. Tom aggravated Mary.

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Translations

6 languages
Українська
By meaning 3
To make worse, or more severe:
To give coloring to in description; to exaggerate; as, to aggravate circumstances:
To exasperate; to provoke; to irritate:
Русский
By meaning 3
To make worse, or more severe:
To give coloring to in description; to exaggerate; as, to aggravate circumstances:
To exasperate; to provoke; to irritate:
Deutsch
By meaning 2
To make worse, or more severe:
To exasperate; to provoke; to irritate:

Origin

The adjective is first attested in 1471 in Middle English, the verb in 1530; from Latin ag

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”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

aggravates, aggravating, aggravated, aggravated
Base formaggravate · to aggravate
3rd person singularaggravates
Present participleaggravating
Past simpleaggravated
Past participleaggravated

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theyaggravate
he, she, itaggravates

Past simpleLesson

all personsaggravated

Present perfectLesson

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

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill aggravate

Synonyms

126 synonyms
heightenC1increaseA2magnifyB2accrueC2enhanceB2growA1swellB1waxB1provokeC1irritateB1annoyA2botherA2bugA2getA1
Close in meaning

Antonyms

7 antonyms
pour oil on troubled watersalleviateC1mitigateameliorateimproveA2repairA2restoreB1

Word family

8 related words
RelatedworsenB2aggravationaggravator
Derivedaggravatableaggravativeaggrooveraggravatereaggravate

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
agentA2agglomerationagglutinativeaggravationaggregate

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

aggravate — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto