Abate and aggravate send the same trouble in opposite directions — with opposite hands. To abate is for a hostile force — a storm, pain, an uproar — to die down of its own accord. To aggravate is to make a bad condition worse by an outside action, careless or deliberate. One is the storm dying down; the other is the storm whipped back up.
The two verbs are near-mirror images in structure as well as sense. Abate, through Old French abattre, 'to beat down', is intransitive in ordinary use: the force settles itself, no agent required, no one to thank. Aggravate, from the Latin aggravare, 'to make heavier', is transitive to the bone: someone or something presses the trouble worse, and the word keeps the receipt. What abates was left alone; what is aggravated decidedly was not.
abate
To abate is to die down — to become weaker, gentler, or less severe over time. Storms abate, pain abates, public anger abates. The word almost always describes the force of something unpleasant or overwhelming draining away rather than the thing disappearing all at once: it is still there, but its intensity is easing off. Unlike diminish, which tracks a shrinking in size or number, abate is about a violent or unwelcome thing losing its grip. It can also be used transitively — to reduce something deliberately, as in measures taken to abate noise pollution.
aggravate
To aggravate something is to make a bad thing worse — and the word points a finger while it says so. A condition that is aggravated did not simply deteriorate; some outside action worked on it, often a careless or deliberate one: running on a sprained ankle aggravates the injury, a harsh reply aggravates a quarrel. The worsening tends to stick. Its mirror-opposites are alleviate, relieve and ease, and its close cousin is exacerbate, which is more formal and often accidental. In everyday speech aggravate has a second job: to annoy or irritate someone, usually through repetition.
| abate | aggravate | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | die down, lose force | make a bad condition worse |
| Who acts | no one — it settles itself | an outside hand, often careless |
| Grammar | usually intransitive | transitive only |
| Tone | neutral, stately | reproachful; informally 'annoy' |
| Root | Old French abattre, beat down | Latin aggravare, make heavier |
| Example | The storm abated. | Running aggravated the injury. |
Leave the trouble alone or lean on it. Left alone, the downpour tires over the bus shelter until its last drop fits in a palm — forces abate when nothing feeds them. Leaned on — the bandaged ankle bounced on, landing after landing — the trouble jumps a size and stays there: aggravated. The whole contrast is in the hands: abate has none, aggravate is one.
abate
- iThe protests abated after the law was withdrawn.
- iiHer migraine abated by the evening.
- iiiSpeculation abated once the figures were published.
aggravate
- iHeavy lifting aggravated the hernia.
- iiSarcasm aggravated an already tense meeting.
- iiiThe construction dust aggravates local allergies.
They meet around pain and public moods: an outcry left alone abates; poked, it is aggravated. Grammar keeps them apart — the subject of abate is the trouble itself; the subject of aggravate is whatever makes it worse. And informally aggravate reaches people (annoyance) where abate never does: crowds are aggravated, storms only ever abate.