1. to make worse or more severe; intensify, as anything evil, disorderly, or troublesome.
2. to annoy; irritate; exasperate.
3. to cause to become irritated or inflamed.
usage: The two most common senses of the verb aggravate are “to make worse” and “to annoy, exasperate.” Both senses, and the corresponding senses of the noun aggravation, appeared in the early 17th century at almost the same time and have been standard since then. The noun and verb senses “to annoy” and “annoyance” are sometimes objected to, and used somewhat less frequently than “to make worse” in formal speech and writing.
1. make worse, exaggerate, intensify, worsen, heighten, exacerbate, magnify, inflame, increase, add insult to injury, fan the flames of Stress and lack of sleep can aggravate the situation.
2. (Informal) annoy, bother, provoke, needle (informal), irritate, tease, hassle (informal), gall, exasperate, nettle, pester, vex, irk, get under your skin (informal), get on your nerves (informal), nark (Brit., Austral., & N.Z. slang), get up your nose (informal), be on your back (slang), piss you off (taboo slang), rub (someone) up the wrong way (informal), get in your hair (informal), get on your wick (Brit. slang) What aggravates you most about this country?
deepen, enhance, heighten, intensify, redouble.
annoy, bother, bug, chafe, disturb, exasperate, fret, gall, get, irk, irritate, nettle, peeve, provoke, put out, rile, ruffle, vex.
Again, by gathering (as was touched before) all that you can find out, to aggravate the contempt.
Tom Sawyer, I lay if you aggravate me a little more, I'll--"
They said I did at home, but I thought likely they just wanted to aggravate me.
In fact, John Browdie's apprehensions were so strong that he determined to ride over to the school without delay, and invited Nicholas to accompany him, which, however, he declined, pleading that his presence might perhaps aggravate the bitterness of their adversity.