aggravating

adjective

ag·​gra·​vat·​ing ˈa-grə-ˌvā-tiŋ 

: arousing displeasure, impatience, or anger

an aggravating habit

Common Uses of Aggravate, Aggravation, and Aggravating: Usage Guide

Although aggravate has been used to refer to rousing someone to anger since the 17th century, it has been the object of disapproval only since about 1870. It is used in expository prose

when his silly conceit … about his not-very-good early work has begun to aggravate us

—William Styron

but seems to be more common in speech and casual writing.

a good profession for him, because bus drivers get aggravated

—Jackie Gleason, interview, 1986

& now this letter comes to aggravate me a thousand times worse

—Mark Twain, letter, 1864

The "make worse" meaning is far more common in published prose than the "rouse to anger" meaning. Such is not the case, however, with aggravation and aggravating. Aggravation is used in the "irritation, provocation" sense somewhat more than in its earlier senses; aggravating has practically no use other than to express annoyance.

Synonyms

• abrasive
• annoying
• bothersome
• carking
• chafing
• disturbing
• exasperating
• frustrating
• galling
• irksome
• irritating
• maddening
• nettlesome
• nettling
• peeving
• pesky
• pestiferous
• pestilent
• pestilential
• pesty
• plaguey
• plaguy
• rankling
• rebarbative
• riling
• vexatious
• vexing

Examples of aggravating in a Sentence

there's nothing so aggravating as a blaring car alarm that no one is paying any attention to

Recent Examples on the Web

But as physical media gets less lucrative and the shuttering of businesses makes optical discs harder to find, the streaming services that largely replaced them are getting aggravating and unreliable. —Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 11 July 2024

More than 10 years earlier, the Department of Defense had issued a memo guiding boards of review to grant upgrade requests if the discharge was based solely on anti-LGBTQ policy and there were no other aggravating charges. —Anne Marshall-Chalmers, USA TODAY, 25 June 2024

Idaho time on Friday where the jury will likely be presented with aggravating and mitigating factors that could impact Daybell's sentence. —Perry Vandell, The Arizona Republic, 30 May 2024

An aggravating factor is the presence of extremist right-wing members in the cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — individuals who have expressed incendiary views indicating a desire to rid the country of the Palestinian population. —Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 7 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

from present participle of aggravate

First Known Use

1673, in the meaning defined above