exacerbate
verb (formal)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they exacerbate | |
| he / she / it exacerbates | |
| past simple exacerbated | |
| past participle exacerbated | |
| -ing form exacerbating |
- exacerbate something
to make something worse, especially a disease or problem 使恶化；使加剧；使加重 His aggressive reaction only exacerbated the situation. 他的挑衅行为只会使情况恶化。 The symptoms may be exacerbated by certain drugs. 这些症状可能会因为某些药物而加重。
Oxford Collocations DictionaryExacerbate is used with these nouns as the object:- anxiety
- condition
- crisis
- …
Word Originmid 17th cent.: from Latin exacerbat- ‘made harsh’, from the verb exacerbare, from ex- (expressing inducement of a state) + acerbus ‘harsh, bitter’. The noun exacerbation (late Middle English) originally meant ‘provocation to anger’.