Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To make very angry or impatient; annoy greatly.
- transitive verb To increase the gravity or intensity of.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To irritate to a high degree; make very angry; provoke to rage; enrage: as, to
exasperate an opponent. - To incite by means of irritation; stimulate through anger or rage; stir up.
- To make grievous or more grievous; aggravate; embitter: as, to
exasperate enmity. - To augment the intensity of; exacerbate: as, to
exasperate inflammation or a part inflamed. - Synonyms Provoke, Incense, Exasperate, Irritate; vex, chafe, nettle, sting. The first four words all refer to the production of angry and generally demonstrative feeling. Irritate often has to do with the nerves, but all have to do with the mind. Provoke is perhaps the most sudden; exasperate is the strongest and least self-controlled; incense stands second in these respects.
- To increase in severity.
- Irritated; inflamed.
- In botany, rough; covered with hard, projecting points.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To irritate in a high degree; to provoke; to enrage; to excite or to inflame the anger of.
- transitive verb To make grievous, or more grievous or malignant; to aggravate; to imbitter.
- adjective obsolete Exasperated; imbittered.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
frustrate ,vex ,provoke , orannoy ; to makeangry .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb make furious
- verb exasperate or irritate
- verb make worse
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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North and encouraged the desperate foe by efforts at peace-parties, conciliations, outcries for amnesty, and entreaties not to 'exasperate' the enemy.
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Crucially, these artists display an eccentricity that seems inherent rather than worn, in the manner of Lady Gaga, whose attempts at the avant garde make me think of the Henry Brooks Adams line: "The American mind exasperated the European as a buzz-saw might exasperate a pine forest."
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What I do disagree with him is that he states that various religions have not created or exasperate incivility.
Randy Jurado Ertll: Bullying and Incivility Have Become an Epidemic Randy Jurado Ertll 2011
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And, yeah, I had to work in the morning, but hearing you exasperate with the subtle lectures on yellower teeth and chimney kisses was worth the oncoming exhaustion.
RailRoads Johnny Dantonio 2010
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What I do disagree with him is that he states that various religions have not created or exasperate incivility.
Randy Jurado Ertll: Bullying and Incivility Have Become an Epidemic Randy Jurado Ertll 2011
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They are clear about what they want and don't want, as opposed to nice people, who can be so vague that they exasperate you when you just want them to "spit it out."
Mark Goulston, M.D.: Is Daddy An A-Hole? M.D. Mark Goulston 2011
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I am firm, and your words will only exasperate my rage.
Chapter 3 2010
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What I do disagree with him is that he states that various religions have not created or exasperate incivility.
Randy Jurado Ertll: Bullying and Incivility Have Become an Epidemic Randy Jurado Ertll 2011
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They are clear about what they want and don't want, as opposed to nice people, who can be so vague that they exasperate you when you just want them to "spit it out."
Mark Goulston, M.D.: Is Daddy An A-Hole? M.D. Mark Goulston 2011
-
What I do disagree with him is that he states that various religions have not created or exasperate incivility.
Randy Jurado Ertll: Bullying and Incivility Have Become an Epidemic Randy Jurado Ertll 2011
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