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Glite Dictionary
🍋 To make sour 😠 To make bitter
to acerbate

to acerbate

9.9
To make someone feel more bitter and angry about something
  • verb
  • /əˈsɜːrbeɪt/
translation icon : agravar
  • The constant criticism only acerbated his feelings toward his classmates.

Examples

  • Years of neglect acerbated the community's resentment against the authorities.

  • Don't acerbate the situation with your harsh words!

  • Her bitter disappointment was acerbated by their lack of understanding.

  • His comments only acerbate her feelings of resentment.

  • Her bitter disappointment was acerbated by their lack of understanding.

  • The constant criticism only acerbated his feelings toward his classmates.

  • Years of neglect acerbated the community's resentment against the authorities.

Synonyms

to rankle
vsto acerbate
10 8.0

To continue to make someone feel angry or hurt

creates resentment but can be an immediate not ongoing effect
to grate
vsto acerbate
  • Informal
9 6.7

Annoy someone more and more over time

causes resentment more directly instead of slowly building irritation
to embitter
vsto acerbate
5 6.8

To make someone feel hurt and angry for a long time

is the basic term for causing such resentment rather than a variant
to bitter
vsto acerbate
1 6.7

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

targets causing emotional resentment rather than affecting taste
to envenom
vsto acerbate
9.9

To make a person or group feel bitter and angry

causes resentment but not necessarily with such intensity or malice

Antonyms

to appease
48 5.8

To calm someone by giving in to their demands

How Upsetting

to acerbate
9.9
to offend
524 2.8
to upset
362 1.0
to annoy
246 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 formed regularly from the adjective 'acerb' plus '-ate', but the base adjective is rare, so average learners are unlikely to know it.

Etymology

Acerbate comes from the old Latin word acerbus, which means 'bitter' or 'harsh' and shares the same root as acerbic. So to acerbate someone is to make their feelings more bitter or resentful.