Definition of "acerbate" [a•cerb•ate]

• To vex or annoy. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "With the rating agencies calling even America's triple-A rating into question, not all the euro-zone summit meetings, of which there have been many and will be many more, can persuade lenders that it is a good idea to make capital available to Greece, or Portugal, or Ireland on terms that will not stifle growth in those countries and acerbate their downward spiral."
• "He is smart as he could acerbate the problem by riding in with chaps and spurs and strut and the attitude that I AM THE WAY! history repeats"
• "Rather than address the problem honestly and have Medicare pick up the medical tab for regular treatment of the uninsured, something that would acerbate the current financial failings of Medicare, they propose to wreck the best health care system in the world with yet another equally flawed government program."