aggravate

1. (by extension) To make (any bad thing) worse.Examples: "to aggravate my woes."; "[…] to aggravate the horrors of the scene"Synonyms: exacerbateAntonyms: alleviate, mitigatebroadly

2. (now rare) To give extra weight or intensity to; to exaggerate, to magnify.Examples: "He aggravated the story."Synonyms: heighten, intensify, increase, magnify, augment, grow, increase, propagatearchaic

3. (obsolete) To pile or heap (something heavy or onerous) on or upon someone.Examples: "In order to lighten the crown still further, they aggravated responsibility on ministers of state."Synonyms: dogpile, heap on, pile onobsolete

4. (now chiefly colloquial; often proscribed; see usage notes) To exasperate; to provoke or irritate.Examples: "If both were to aggravate her parents, as my brother and sister do mine."; "Ben Bella was aggravated by having to express himself in French because the Egyptians were unable to understand his Arabic."Synonyms: provoke, irritate, exasperate, aggravate, annoy, rankle, ruffle, stingcolloquialoftenproscribed