different between aggravate vs chafe

English

Etymology

From Latin aggravatus, past participle of aggravare (“to add to the weight of, make worse, oppress, annoy”), from ad (“to”) + gravare (“to make heavy”), from gravis (“heavy”). See grave and compare aggrieve and aggrege.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?.??.ve??t/

Verb

aggravate (third-person singular simple present aggravates, present participle aggravating, simple past and past participle aggravated)

1. To make (an offence) worse or more severe; to increase in offensiveness or heinousness. [from 16th c.]
   • 1709 Joseph Addison, The Tatler

     The defense made by the prisoner's counsel did rather aggravate than extenuate his crime.

2. (by extension) To make worse; to exacerbate. [from 16th c.]
   • 1837, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic

     […] to aggravate the horrors of the scene

3. (now rare) To give extra weight or intensity to; to exaggerate, to magnify. [from 16th c.]

4. (obsolete) To pile or heap (something heavy or onerous) on or upon someone. [16th–18th c.]
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford 2009, p. 28:

     In order to lighten the crown still further, they aggravated responsibility on ministers of state.

5. (now chiefly colloquial) To exasperate; to provoke or irritate. [from 16th c.]
   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa:

     If both were to aggravate her parents, as my brother and sister do mine.

   • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 85:

     Ben Bella was aggravated by having to express himself in French because the Egyptians were unable to understand his Arabic.

Usage notes

Although the meaning "to exasperate, to annoy" has been in continuous usage since the 16th century, a large number of usage mavens have contested it since the 1870s. Opinions have swayed from this proscription since 1965, but it still garners disapproval in Garner's Modern American Usage (2009), at least for formal writing.

Synonyms

• (to make worse): heighten, intensify, increase, magnify, exaggerate, exacerbate
• (to exasperate): provoke, irritate, exasperate
• See also Thesaurus:annoy

Antonyms

• (to make worse): alleviate, mitigate

Related terms

• aggravation

Translations

Further reading

• aggravate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• aggravate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Italian

Verb

aggravate

1. second-person plural present indicative of aggravare
2. second-person plural imperative of aggravare
3. feminine plural of aggravato

Latin

Verb

aggrav?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of aggrav?

English

Etymology

From Middle English chaufen (“to warm”), borrowed from Old French chaufer (modern French chauffer), from Latin calefacere, calfacere (“to make warm”), from calere (“to be warm”) + facere (“to make”). See caldron.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /t?e?f/
• Rhymes: -e?f

Noun

chafe (uncountable)

1. Heat excited by friction.
2. Injury or wear caused by friction.
3. Vexation; irritation of mind; rage.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.5:

     Like a wylde Bull, that, being at a bay, / Is bayted of a mastiffe and a hound / […] That in his chauffe he digs the trampled ground / And threats his horns […]

4. (archaic) An expression of opinionated conflict.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:argument

   • 1830, Joseph Plumb Martin, The Adventures Of A Revolutionary Soldier

     When we returned we found the poor prisoner in a terrible chafe with the sentinel for detaining him, for the guard had been true to his trust.

Derived terms

• chafen

Translations

Verb

chafe (third-person singular simple present chafes, present participle chafing, simple past and past participle chafed)

1. (transitive) To excite heat in by friction; to rub in order to stimulate and make warm.
2. (transitive) To excite passion or anger in; to fret; to irritate.
3. (transitive) To fret and wear by rubbing.

4. (intransitive) To rub; to come together so as to wear by rubbing; to wear by friction.
   • 1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha

     made its great boughs chafe together

5. (intransitive) To be worn by rubbing.

6. (intransitive) To have a feeling of vexation; to be vexed; to fret; to be irritated.
   • 1996, Jim Schiller, Developing Jepara in New Order Indonesia, page 58:

     Many local politicians chafed under the restrictions of Guided Democracy […]

Translations

References

• chafe in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• chafe on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Spanish

Verb

chafe

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of chafar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of chafar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of chafar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of chafar.