When you repeatedly poke someone while whining and yelling at him, this is an example of a situation where you are likely to exasperate him.
- to irritate or annoy very much; make angry; vex
- Archaic to intensify (a feeling, disease, etc.); aggravate
Origin of exasperate; from Classical Latin exasperatus, past participle of exasperare ; from ex-, out, from + asperare, to roughen ; from asper, rough: see asperity
- Archaic exasperated
- Bot. having rough and prickly skin
Origin of exasperate; from Classical Latin exasperatus: see exasperate
transitive verbex·as·per·at·ed, ex·as·per·at·ing, ex·as·per·ates
- To make very angry or impatient; annoy greatly.
- To increase the gravity or intensity of: “a scene &ellipsis; that exasperates his rose fever and makes him sneeze” (Samuel Beckett).
Origin of exasperateLatin exasper&amacron;re, exasper&amacron;t- : ex-, intensive pref.; see ex– + asper&amacron;re, to make rough (from asper, rough).
(third-person singular simple present exasperates, present participle exasperating, simple past and past participle exasperated)
(comparative more exasperate, superlative most exasperate)
- (obsolete) Exasperated; embittered.