To make worse or more severe; to intensify something negative. In formal usage, it means to worsen a situation rather than to annoy (though the latter is common in informal speech).
From Latin 'aggravare,' combining 'ad-' (to) and 'gravis' (heavy), literally meaning 'to make heavier.' The original sense was physical weight, but by the 16th century it had extended to mean making problems or conditions more burdensome.
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