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Exasperate vs Exhilarate - What's the difference?

exasperate | exhilarate |

As verbs the difference between exasperate and exhilarate

is that exasperate is to frustrate, vex, provoke, or annoy; to make angry while exhilarate is (archaic) to make happy, cheer up; to gladden.

As an adjective exasperate

is (obsolete) exasperated; embittered.

exasperate

English

Verb

(exasperat)
  • To frustrate, vex, provoke, or annoy; to make angry.
  • * , Macbeth , act 3, sc. 6:
  • this report
    Hath so exasperate the king that he
    Prepares for some attempt of war.
  • * 1851 , , Moby Dick , ch. 3:
  • The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.
  • * 1853 , , Bleak House , ch. 11:
  • Beadle goes into various shops and parlours, examining the inhabitants; always shutting the door first, and by exclusion, delay, and general idiotcy, exasperating the public.
  • * 1987 , " Woman of the Year: Corazon Aquino," Time , 5 Jan:
  • [S]he exasperates her security men by acting as if she were protected by some invisible shield.
  • * 2007 , " Loyal Mail," Times Online (UK), 4 June (retrieved 7 Oct 2010):
  • News that Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, is set to receive a bumper bonus will exasperate postal workers.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Exasperated; embittered.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • * Elizabeth Browning
  • Like swallows which the exasperate dying year / Sets spinning.

    See also

    * exacerbate ----

    exhilarate

    English

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (archaic) To make happy, cheer up; to gladden.
  • Good news exhilarates''' the mind; wine '''exhilarates the drinker.
  • *, II.2.4:
  • Many such tricks are ordinarily put in practice by great men, to exhilarate themselves and others, all which are harmless jests, and have their good uses.
  • To thrill refreshingly.
  • To bring new life to.