Aggravate means to make a problem worse or more severe. If you sprain your ankle and then walk on it too much, you'll aggravate the injury. When a teacher asks for quiet and someone keeps whispering, they aggravate the situation. A small scratch that you keep picking at will only be aggravated and might get infected.

You might aggravate your parents when you forget to do your chores again after promising you would. An argument between friends gets aggravated when someone brings up old disagreements instead of focusing on solving the current problem.

Many people use “aggravate” to mean “annoy” or “irritate,” and you'll hear this frequently: “Stop aggravating your sister!” While language experts have long debated whether this usage is correct, it has become so common that most dictionaries now accept it. Still, the word's core meaning is about making something worse. When a situation is already tense or a problem already exists, aggravating it means you're piling on instead of helping.