🍋 To make sour 😠 To make bitter

to acerbate

9.9

To make a taste, situation, or feeling more bitter

verb
/əˈsɜːrbeɪt/

: agriar

The leader's harsh remarks only acerbated the already tense atmosphere.

Examples

Chemical additives can acerbate the taste of wine if not used carefully.
His constant criticism only acerbated her sense of inadequacy.
Years of neglect had acerbated the bitterness between the two families.
Don't acerbate the problem with more complaints!
The manager acerbated the team's morale.
Her comments only served to acerbate his feelings of resentment.
The new policy will likely acerbate the divide between the two groups.

Synonyms

to bitter

vsto acerbate

1 6.7

To make something have a sharp taste or cause strong negative feelings

includes making things sour as well as causing harsh feelings

to acetify

vsto acerbate

9.9

To become sour and change into vinegar

is the general act of causing sourness or harsh feeling rather than vinegar formation

to acidulate

vsto acerbate

Specialized

9.4

Make something slightly sour by adding lemon or vinegar

shows stronger or broader souring and can also cause harsh feelings

Antonyms

to sweeten

25 3.0

Make food taste sweeter by adding sugar or make an offer more attractive

How Bitter

to acerbate

9.9

souring

1 5.8

sour

4 1.0

Surface Forms

acerbate infinitive

acerbated past

acerbated past participle

acerbating present participle

acerbates third person singular

Morphology

acerbate = acerb (semi-transparent) = acerb + ate

The verb is derived from the adjective 'acerb' with the productive suffix '-ate'; the formation is regular but the adjective is low-frequency.

Etymology

Acerbate comes from the old Latin word acerbus, meaning 'bitter' or 'harsh', the same root behind acerbic. So to acerbate something is to make it more bitter or sour, either in taste or in feeling.