Exasperate

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æspÉ™reɪt

Full definition of exasperate

Verb

1. To frustrate, vex, provoke, or annoy; to make angry.
• circa 1611 William Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 3, sc. 6:this reportHath so exasperate the king that hePrepares for some attempt of war.
• 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, ch. 3:The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.
• 1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ch. 11:Beadle goes into various shops and parlours, examining the inhabitants; always shutting the door first, and by exclusion, delay, and general idiotcy, exasperating the public.
• 1987, "Woman of the Year: Corazon Aquino," Time, 5 Jan:She exasperates her security men by acting as if she were protected by some invisible shield.
• 2007, "Loyal Mail," Times Online (UK), 4 June (retrieved 7 Oct 2010):News that Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, is set to receive a bumper bonus will exasperate postal workers.

Adjective

1. (obsolete) Exasperated; embittered.
• Elizabeth BrowningLike swallows which the exasperate dying year
  Sets spinning.