aggravating

Verb

aggravate (third-person singular simple present aggravates, present participle aggravating, simple past and past participle aggravated)

1. To make (an offence) worse or more severe; to increase in offensiveness or heinousness.
   • Once more, the more to aggrauate the note,
     With a foule Traitors name ſtuffe I thy throte,
     And wiſh (ſo pleaſe my Soueraigne) ere I moue,
     What my tong ſpeaks, my right drawn ſword may proue1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...

   Synonyms:

   add insult to injury, twist the knife, add fuel to the fire, cap it all off, fan the flames, make matters worse, throw gasoline on the fire, With malice, hit someone when they are down, kick a dog when it's down

   Antonyms:

   pour oil on troubled waters, alleviate

2. (broadly) To make (any bad thing) worse.
   • to aggravate my woes.1726, Homer, “Book XVI”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume IV, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   exacerbate

   Antonyms:

   alleviate, mitigate

3. (archaic) To give extra weight or intensity to; to exaggerate, to magnify.
   • He aggravated the story.

   Synonyms:

   heighten, intensify, increase, magnify, accelerate, accrue, aggrandize, augment, embiggen, enhance

4. (obsolete) To pile or heap (something heavy or onerous) on or upon someone.
   • In order to lighten the crown still further, they aggravated responsibility on ministers of state.1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford, published 2009, page 28

   Synonyms:

   dogpile, heap on, pile on

5. (colloquial, often, proscribed) To exasperate; to provoke or irritate.
   • If both were to aggravate her parents, as my brother and sister do mine.1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   provoke, irritate, exasperate, annoy, nettle, rankle, ruffle, sting, burn someone's ass, antagonize

See all 9 meanings of aggravate