lexicow

aggravate

/ˈæɡrəveɪt//ˈæɡrəveɪt/·verb

to make a problem, injury, or bad situation worse

A man sits with his ankle wrapped, a small red pulse beating under the bandage — bad, but bearable, so long as he leaves it alone. He doesn't. He gets up and starts bouncing on that foot, and every landing sends a flash through the joint and jumps the pulse up a size, small to angry to furious. He drops back onto the stool clutching his shin, and the throb stays huge, beating hard under the wrap while he shakes his head at what he has done to himself.
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Definition

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.

Examples

  • Running on a sprained ankle will only aggravate the injury.
  • The minister's dismissive remarks aggravated an already tense standoff.
  • It aggravates her when people interrupt before she has finished a sentence.

Collocations

aggravate an injury·aggravate the situation·aggravate tensions·aggravate the problem·aggravating circumstances·be aggravated by

Synonyms

worsen·exacerbate·inflame·intensify·irritate

Antonyms

alleviate·relieve·ease·mitigate

Word family

aggravation (noun)·aggravating (adjective)·aggravated (adjective)

In TOEFL & IELTS

A high-value verb for cause-and-effect writing: policies, remarks and delays all 'aggravate' problems, tensions and inequalities, and careless exercise 'aggravates an injury' — the collocation examiners most expect. Note the legal pair 'aggravating circumstances' versus 'mitigating circumstances', a ready-made contrast for essays on crime. Keep the neighbours straight: aggravate implies an outside action making things worse, worsen can happen on its own, and exacerbate is the more formal, often accidental flare-up. In informal English aggravate also means annoy — fine in Speaking, but keep the make-worse sense in academic writing.