Aggravating

causing or full of :
i’ve had an aggravating day.
to make worse or more severe; intensify, as anything evil, disorderly, or troublesome:
to aggravate a grievance; to aggravate an illness.
to annoy; irritate; exasperate:
his questions aggravate her.
to cause to become irritated or inflamed:
the child’s constant scratching aggravated the rash.
contemporary examples

we all know that spending time with your extended clan over the holidays can be aggravating.
can being with your family on thanksgiving actually kill you? kent sepkowitz november 28, 2013

but it is disruptive, costly, aggravating, and absolutely pointless.
who gets hurt in a government shutdown daniel stone april 3, 2011

but after more than 10 aggravating, exorbitantly expensive and violent years, the world has pretty much had it with afghanistan.
afghanistan’s mineral wealth could be a bonanza—or lead to disaster dr. cheryl benard july 3, 2012

there are a lot of aggravating myths and narratives in politics.
the most annoying myth in politics jamelle bouie february 23, 2014

so while the poor sound quality was aggravating, it was also a signal of some weird legitimacy.
digging the gold in dylan’s ‘bas-m-nt’ malcolm jones november 4, 2014

historical examples

when i had finished he seemed to have gained a new att-tude of aggravating wise superiority.
the killer stewart edward white

for the symptoms of the night before had developed in a most aggravating way.
a modern tomboy l. t. meade

it’s very well for you to call me a foolish, aggravating woman!
mrs. caudle’s curtain lectures anonymous

here she stopped short in the most aggravating manner in the world.
jack harkaway’s boy tinker among the turks bracebridge hemyng

but pecksniff is that aggravating as i can hardly heed the words i now put on the paper.
old friends andrew lang

verb (transitive)
to make (a disease, situation, problem, etc) worse or more severe
(informal) to annoy; exasperate, esp by deliberate and persistent goading
v.

1520s, “make heavy, burden down,” from past participle adjective aggravate “burdened; threatened” (late 15c.), from latin aggravatus, past participle of aggravare “to render more troublesome,” literally “to make heavy” (see aggravation). earlier in this sense was aggrege (late 14c.). meaning “to make a bad thing worse” is from 1590s; that of “exasperate, annoy” is from 1610s.

to aggravate has properly only one meaning — to make (an evil) worse or more serious. [fowler]

related: aggravated; aggravating. phrase aggravating circ-mstances is recorded from 1790.