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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Aggravating

Aggravating \Ag"gra*va`ting\, a.

  1. Making worse or more heinous; as, aggravating circumstances.

  2. Exasperating; provoking; irritating. [Colloq.]

    A thing at once ridiculous and aggravating.
    --J. Ingelow.

Aggravating

Aggravate \Ag"gra*vate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Aggravated; p. pr. & vb. n. Aggravating.] [L. aggravatus, p. p. of aggravare. See Aggrieve.]

  1. To make heavy or heavier; to add to; to increase. [Obs.] ``To aggravate thy store.''
    --Shak.

  2. To make worse, or more severe; to render less tolerable or less excusable; to make more offensive; to enhance; to intensify. ``To aggravate my woes.''
    --Pope.

    To aggravate the horrors of the scene.
    --Prescott.

    The defense made by the prisoner's counsel did rather aggravate than extenuate his crime.
    --Addison.

  3. To give coloring to in description; to exaggerate; as, to aggravate circumstances.
    --Paley.

  4. To exasperate; to provoke; to irritate. [Colloq.]

    If both were to aggravate her parents, as my brother and sister do mine.
    --Richardson (Clarissa).

    Syn: To heighten; intensify; increase; magnify; exaggerate; provoke; irritate; exasperate.

Wiktionary
aggravating

vb. (present participle of aggravate English)

WordNet
aggravating

adj. making worse [syn: exacerbating, exasperating]

Usage examples of "aggravating".

Fathom, and immediately set on foot a prosecution against our adventurer, whose behaviour to his wife he did not fail to promulgate, with all its aggravating circumstances.

Persons of a lymphatic or bilious temperament often find that coffee disagrees with them, aggravating their troubles and causing biliousness, constipation, and headache, while tea proves agreeable and beneficial.

It causes tickling and frequent desire to clear the throat, change, weakness, or entire loss of voice, and difficulty of breathing, frequently giving rise to the most persistent and aggravating cough.

Its prominent feature is an intense itching, so aggravating that, in many instances, the skin is torn by the nails.

It causes tickling and frequent desire to clear the throat, also change, weakness and loss of voice, and often gives rise to a very persistent and aggravating cough.

At the above stated period I had also been a sufferer from diarrhea, in its most aggravating form, for three and a half years, and I was completely and radically cured of that, also.

I had also been a sufferer from diarrhea, in its most aggravating form, for three and a half years, and I was completely and radically cured of that, also.

Although he suspected that her gentle massaging was only aggravating the stain, he gave himself over to the feel of her fingers stroking him through the thin layer of his clothing.

As if there were not enough misery already, without these bastards aggravating it.

Grandmother Wheeler smiled her little, aggravating, curved, pink smile.

Hast thou plunged thy house in calamity, and will no worthier wish occur to thee, than to leave it to its sorrows and distress, with the aggravating pangs of causing thy afflicting, however blamable self-desertion?

She hated the weak man for aggravating the offence of his unsightliness by allying himself with the reactionary powers that made this world as unsightly as himself.

Then the usual obligatory introductions and sugary compliments and aggravating politenesses, and over an hour of back and forth, of demands calmly deflected, ponderous arguments, delays requested, astonishment where none was merited, questions needing to be repeated, facts dismissed, the truth disregarded--alibis, explanations, rationalizations, excuses, all courteously delivered.

Or it may be personal: anyone who makes the hardest physical challenges in life seem as easy as buttering toast, and then reminds you how easy it is, is at the very least aggravating.

He was still sitting on the ground, Milo, Baldwin and Udo hovering behind him as his servingmen agonized over how to get the bloodied mail shirt off without aggravating his injured shoulders.