Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To vex or annoy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make sour, bitter, or harsh to the taste; hence, to embitter or exasperate.
- Embittered; exasperated; severe.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To sour; to imbitter; to irritate.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective rare
Embittered ; having asour disposition or nature. - verb To
exasperate ; toirritate . - verb To make
bitter or sour.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb cause to be bitter or resentful
- verb make sour or bitter
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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With the rating agencies calling even America's triple-A rating into question, not all the euro-zone summit meetings, of which there have been many and will be many more, can persuade lenders that it is a good idea to make capital available to Greece, or Portugal, or Ireland on terms that will not stifle growth in those countries and acerbate their downward spiral.
Advice for Eurocracy: Take a Tip From Nike and 'Just Do It' Irwin Stelzer 2011
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He is smart as he could acerbate the problem by riding in with chaps and spurs and strut and the attitude that I AM THE WAY! history repeats
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Rather than address the problem honestly and have Medicare pick up the medical tab for regular treatment of the uninsured, something that would acerbate the current financial failings of Medicare, they propose to wreck the best health care system in the world with yet another equally flawed government program.
House Democrat: Health care bill in doubt without public plan 2009
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No. Is it possible he saw an opportunity to acerbate the situation and shine a brighter light on the problem?
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As that pollution is reduced for health reasons, we're going to blast right through 2 degrees, which is enough to ex-acerbate droughts and storms, wreak havoc on agriculture, and produce a planet warmer than it's been in millions of years.
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Lady Laura had triumphed; but she had no desire to acerbate her husband by any unpalatable allusion to her victory.
Phineas Finn 2004
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The poor girl had not spirit sufficient to upbraid her friend; nor did it suit her now to acerbate an enemy.
The Way We Live Now 2004
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He did not wish to acerbate the member for Mile End, and was quite willing to give him a lift towards keeping his seat for the borough, if able to do so without cost to the public exchequer.
The Three Clerks 2004
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She said one of Eskom's aims was to make people aware about saving electricity because if was not used properly, it would acerbate the possible shortages.
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Everything Booth did only seemed to ex-acerbate the problem.
The Black Hole Foster, Alan Dean 1979
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