aggravate

This term carries a strong sense of escalation, where an existing negative state is pushed toward a more critical or unbearable level. It is frequently used in medical contexts to describe the worsening of a symptom or injury, as well as in social contexts to describe the intensification of a conflict. In casual speech, it is often used interchangeably with irritate to describe the act of annoying a person. However, in formal or technical writing, a sharp distinction is maintained: to irritate is to provoke a reaction, while to aggravate is to make a pre-existing condition more severe.