EXACERBATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does exacerbate mean? 

• EXACERBATE (verb)
  The verb EXACERBATE has 2 senses:

1. make worse

2. exasperate or irritate

  Familiarity information: EXACERBATE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXACERBATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they exacerbate    ... he / she / it exacerbates   
Past simple: exacerbated   
Past participle: exacerbated   
-ing form: exacerbating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make worse

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

aggravate; exacerbate; exasperate; worsen

Context example:

This drug aggravates the pain

Hypernyms (to "exacerbate" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "exacerbate"):

irritate (excite to an abnormal condition, or chafe or inflame)

inflame (cause inflammation in)

cheapen; degrade (lower the grade of something; reduce its worth)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

exacerbation (action that makes a problem or a disease (or its symptoms) worse)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Exasperate or irritate

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

aggravate; exacerbate; exasperate

Hypernyms (to "exacerbate" is one way to...):

anger (make angry)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

exacerbation (violent and bitter exasperation)

 Context examples 

Poor people often resort to chemicals to control mould growth in the home, but these can exacerbate respiratory diseases and are not a sustainable and safe prevention method.

(Smoother walls healthier for lungs, SciDev.Net)

Signs and symptoms may be exacerbated during fasting and include hypoketotic hypoglycemia, increased levels of carnitine in the blood, hepatomegaly, seizures, and coma.

(Carnitine Palmitoyltransferase I Deficiency, NCI Thesaurus)

The current study involving retinitis pigmentosa underscores the notion that the complement system may in fact exacerbate or curb retinal degeneration depending on the context.

(Immune system can slow degenerative eye disease, National Institutes of Health)

A wide group of related learning disorders characterized by difficulties with mathematics and manipulating numbers; the difficulty with math may be caused or exacerbated by visuo-spatial or language processing difficulties.

(Dyscalculia, NCI Thesaurus)

The symptoms may exacerbate with exposure to cold weather.

(Cryopyrin-Associated Periodic Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

The study’s projections say warming-induced glacial melts will spike dangerously, increasing river flows, between 2050 and 2060, exacerbating the risk of high-altitude glacial lakes overflowing and, consequently, flooding communities.

(Bulk of Himalayan glaciers could vanish by 2100, SciDev.Net)

In areas with large human populations, pollution often exacerbates the problem by stimulating these algae.

(Too much algae and too many microbes threaten coral reefs, NSF)

Evidence increasingly suggests that this oceanic current system is slowing down, and some scientists fear it could have major effects, such as causing temperatures to dive in Europe and warming the waters off the eastern coast of the USA, potentially harming fisheries and exacerbating hurricanes.

(A new study is the first to measure the time lags between changing ocean currents and major climate shifts., University of Cambridge)

Currently, therapies available to people with EoE include taking corticosteroids to relieve inflammatory symptoms, restricting their diets to avoid allergen-containing foods that may exacerbate the condition, or undergoing periodic surgical procedures to expand the esophagus.

(Eosinophilic esophagitis may be due to missing protein, National Institutes of Health)

Dr James H. Barrett, from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology, argues that the Norse abandonment of Greenland may have been precipitated by a perfect storm of depleted resources and volatile prices, exacerbated by climate change.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)