aggravate
part of speech
verb (aggravate, aggravates, aggravated, aggravating)
meaning for a pupil
1) To make a problem, injury or illness worse. tree →
2) (informal) To annoy someone. tree →
sense in the lessons
In health and first aid: running can aggravate a sprained ankle. In everyday talk: "Stop aggravating your sister!" In law: aggravated assault is a more serious crime. Phrases: aggravate an injury, aggravate the problem, aggravating.
examples
- Running on it will aggravate your injury. tree →
- Scratching aggravates the itch. tree →
- Shouting only aggravated the problem. tree →
- My little brother really aggravates me. tree →
- Smoke can aggravate asthma. tree →
- It's so aggravating when the bus is late. tree →
- "And to be sure it isn't pleasing to me, you aggravating goose-cap!" tree →
note
Some people say only meaning 1 is correct, but meaning 2 (annoy) is very common. Noun: aggravation; in UK slang "aggro" means trouble or violence. Spelling: double g, single v.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «aggravate» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.