aggravate

t. [From the adj. In Fr. aggraver; Ital. aggravare; Lat. aggravo: ad = to, and gravo = to load or burden; gravis = heavy. (Used only in a fig., sense.)] 1. To render le tolerable, to make more unendurable, to make worse. IMG:content-0269.png:[ocr errors] "Heaven such illusion only can impose, By the false joy to aggravate my woes." Pope: Homer's Ody ey, bk. xvi., 216, 217. 122 "Still le could it be doubted that their failure Would aggravate every evil of which they complained." -Macaulay: Hist. Eng ., ch. ii. 2. To render a sin or a fault worse by the addition of some circumstance involving a new element of blame. "This offence, in itself so heinous, was yet in him aggravated by the motive thereof, which was not malice or discontent, but an inspiring mind to the papacy."- Bacon : Henry VII. 3. To make a sin, a crime, or a fault look worse by skilful colouring introduced by the person who narrates it to exaggerate a charge. "Small matters aggravated with heinous names,"Hall: Edward V. 4. Colloquial : To provoke, to irritate, to cause to lose the temper.