Exasperate

//ɪɡˈzæsp(ə)ɹeɪt// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To tax the patience of; irk, frustrate, vex, provoke, annoy; to make angry. transitive

    "And this report Hath so exasperate [sic] the king that he Prepares for some attempt of war."

  2. 2
    make worse wordnet
  3. 3
    make furious wordnet
  4. 4
    exasperate or irritate wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Exasperated. obsolete

    "And this report Hath ſo exaſperate their King, that hee Prepares for ſome attempt of Warre."

  2. 2
    Exasperated; embittered. obsolete

    "Thersites. Do I curse thee? Patroclus. Why no, you ruinous butt, you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no. Thersites. No! why art thou then exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleave-silk […]"

Synonyms

All synonyms
aggravateaggravateagitateamplifyangerannoy

Antonyms

All antonyms
please

Example

More examples

"You can see both sides of almost any issue -- and while it might exasperate your friends and lead to a few Hamlet moments, you're perfectly happy with your broad perspective."

Etymology

First attested in 1534; borrowed from Latin exasperātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin exasperō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ex (“out of; thoroughly”) + asperō (“to make rough”), from asper (“rough”). Participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.