aggravate

For lawyer and activist Arif Ali Cangi, the legislation approved in July, which allows companies to expropriate or rezone agricultural land for mining, will only aggravate the situation.

From Barron's ● May 15, 2026

And people do leave, including the ones Lemon seems to aggravate the most.

From Slate ● Feb. 4, 2026

Minneapolis City Council member Soren Stevenson said the move would only aggravate tension.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2026

The physio gave her a full assessment and hands-on treatment including joint mobilisation, and taught her different ways to move her body to not aggravate her hip joints, which helped ease the pain.

From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2025

Use irritate to mean “inflame,” and use aggravate to mean “worsen.”

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner

NOx is a smog-forming pollutant that aggravates respiratory illnesses, especially asthma, forms acid rain and contributes to nutrient pollution in coastal waters.

From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026

The document asks all the right questions and reaches all the wrong conclusions—the way a doctor might correctly identify symptoms and then prescribe a remedy that aggravates the disease.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

Turning our heads toward the future aggravates the whiplash induced by rapid change.

From Salon ● May 30, 2026

"The worst time for me is when we're driving in the autumn and the sun is low and the sun is flickering through the trees...it really aggravates," says Dr Munro.

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2025

This aggravates his father no end, and several other adults have made nasty remarks about it too.

From "The Pigman" by Paul Zindel

It said that Rhodes "thoroughly warranted a long minimum term", but that aspects of the case should have further aggravated the sentence.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

Roberts didn’t expect the biceps issue to affect Ohtani’s throwing schedule between pitching starts, especially because he aggravated it on a swing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2026

Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Lee Chan-jin expressed sorrow at failing to halt the launch of single-stock leveraged ETFs in May, saying it might have aggravated market swings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

It was not the first time either Briggs or Murphy had taken positions that aggravated members of their parties in legislatures that have taken sharp turns to the right.

From Salon ● Jun. 8, 2026

This enforced separation from his family aggravated the hatred for America that he’d felt since 1976, when he lost his case in federal court and refused thereafter to pay taxes.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

But around kids her own age, Bonnie is so timid she becomes aggravating to watch.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026

He said the international community needed to do more to prevent foreign trawlers operating illegally in the region, aggravating locals.

From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026

But Nexstar seems to be only aggravating the tension between its professed Middle America branding and its actual business moves.

From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2026

She said Swalwell’s denials of the online accusations in the week leading up to the stories’ publication were aggravating.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026

“Yes, I have. God knows why. You're peculiar, you're aggravating, yet you're easy to forgive. You say you're seventeen?”

From "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury