# exasperate
## English
### Etymology

From Latin exasperō; ex (“out of; thoroughly”) + asperō (“make rough”), from asper (“rough”).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /ɪɡˈzæsp(ə)ɹeɪt/
* (Received Pronunciation, also) IPA: /ɪɡˈzɑːspəɹeɪt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -æspəɹeɪt
* Hyphenation: ex‧as‧per‧ate

### Verb

exasperate (third-person singular simple present exasperates, present participle exasperating, simple past and past participle exasperated)
* (transitive) To tax the patience of; irk, frustrate, vex, provoke, annoy; to make angry.
    Synonyms: aggravate, rile; see also Thesaurus:annoy
** c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:And this report Hath so exasperate [sic] the king that he Prepares for some attempt of war.
** 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC: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.
** 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC: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 January 5, “Woman of the Year: Corazon Aquino”, in Time:[S]he exasperates her security men by acting as if she were protected by some invisible shield.
** 2007 June 4, “Loyal Mail”, in Times Online, UK, retrieved 7 October 2010:News that Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, is set to receive a bumper bonus will exasperate postal workers.

#### Derived terms

* exasperater
* exasperative

#### Translations
### Adjective

exasperate (comparative more exasperate, superlative most exasperate)
* (obsolete) exasperated; embittered.
** c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:Thersites. Do I curse thee? Patroclus. Why no, you ruinous butt, you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no. Thersites. No! why art thou then exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleave-silk […]
** 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Fourth Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 177:Like swallows which the exasperate dying year Sets spinning […]

#### Related terms

* asperate
* asperity

### See also

* exacerbate

### References

* Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “exasperate”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

## Ido
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /eksaspeˈrate/, /eɡzaspeˈrate/

### Verb

exasperate
* adverbial present passive participle of exasperar

## Latin
### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ek.sas.peˈraː.te/, [ɛks̠äs̠pɛˈräːt̪ɛ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ek.sas.peˈra.te/, [eɡzäspeˈräːt̪e]

### Verb

exasperāte
* second-person plural present active imperative of exasperō

## Spanish
### Verb

exasperate
* second-person singular voseo imperative of exasperar combined with te