Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of exacerbating, or the state of being exacerbated; increase of violence or virulence; aggravation; exasperation.
  • noun In medicine, an increase of violence in a disease; specifically, the periodical aggravation of the febrile condition in remittent and continued fevers: as, nocturnal exacerbations.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of rendering more violent or bitter; the state of being exacerbated or intensified in violence or malignity.
  • noun (Med.) A periodical increase of violence in a disease, as in remittent or continuous fever; an increased energy of diseased and painful action.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An increase in the severity of something (such as a disease)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun action that makes a problem or a disease (or its symptoms) worse
  • noun violent and bitter exasperation

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A significant worsening of symptoms called an exacerbation can last several weeks and often requires substantial medical intervention, including hospitalization.

    unknown title 2011

  • A significant worsening of symptoms - called an exacerbation - can last several weeks and often requires substantial medical intervention, including hospitalization.

    unknown title 2011

  • The medical term for this is "fear-avoidance," and it defines a thought process where an individual fears the presence or potential exacerbation of pain to the point of avoiding activities.

    Peter Abaci, M.D.: Conquering Fear Improves Pain Control M.D. Peter Abaci 2012

  • Each event is a step towards the exacerbation of the crisis, to see more clearly that science is science, and that history is irreversible event though it is judged to be cyclical.

    Global Voices in English » Honduras: Political Crisis Over Controversial Referendum 2009

  • The medical term for this is "fear-avoidance," and it defines a thought process where an individual fears the presence or potential exacerbation of pain to the point of avoiding activities.

    Peter Abaci, M.D.: Conquering Fear Improves Pain Control M.D. Peter Abaci 2012

  • "I said 85 percent of State Department posts had adequate medical care that could care for Ms. Meyer were she to have an exacerbation of her multiple sclerosis, her symptoms, her symptomatology," agency physician Emil Von Arx III told Schwartz during a deposition in 2008.

    For a Foreign Service officer with MS, what is 'around the world'? Joe Davidson 2010

  • "These data will be reviewed together with the larger 12-month exacerbation studies still under way, to develop a complete evaluation of Relovair in treating patients with COPD."

    Glaxo Drug Gets Positive Trial Results Sten Stovall 2011

  • This is interpreted—not entirely wrongly—by Beijing as an exacerbation of what China calls Washington's "anti-China containment policy."

    Beijing Joins Team Anti-America Willy Lam 2012

  • I believe that few Canadians, other than old pols who have done nicely under the undemocratic FPTP, and their political and media hangers-on, truly prefer minority rule and wasted votes and hyper-partisanship and the exacerbation of regional differences, all of which are fostered by the current system.

    Archive 2009-05-01 2009

  • "TARP's most significant legacy may be the exacerbation of the problems posed by 'too big to fail,' particularly given the manner in which Treasury executed the bailout, largely sparing executives, shareholder, creditors and counterparties, reinforcing that not only would the government bail out the largest institutions, but would do so in a manner that would do little harm to the responsible stakeholders," Mr. Barofsky said.

    TARP Watchdog Spars Over 'Too Big to Fail' Andrew Ackerman 2011

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