aggravating
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
- aggravatingly adverb
- unaggravating adjective
Etymology
Origin of aggravating
First recorded in 1630–40; aggravat(e) + -ing 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The retailer's attempt to humanise its chat bot may have backfired, as some users said that Olive was "obnoxious," while another said that they found its small talk "aggravating."
From BBC • Feb. 27, 2026
And while the Eagles rode the maneuver to a Super Bowl, the rest of the league found it so aggravating and unsightly that certain teams pushed unsuccessfully last year to ban it from the game.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026
It’s all fittingly itchy for literature’s most aggravating couple and a story that chafes against the convention that love wins — or even that love is good.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 11, 2026
What’s most aggravating is that we’ve stood for this for so long.
From Salon • Jan. 25, 2026
Jumper was full of a lot of pesky, aggravating mule tricks; but when you called on him to move a load, he’d move it or bust something.
From "Old Yeller" by Fred Gipson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
