What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Exasperate vs Vindictive - What's the difference?

exasperate | vindictive |

In obsolete terms the difference between exasperate and vindictive

is that exasperate is exasperated; embittered while vindictive is punitive.

As a verb exasperate

is to frustrate, vex, provoke, or annoy; to make angry.

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 ----

    vindictive

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having a tendency to seek revenge when , vengeful.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1920 , author=D. H. Lawrence , title=Women in Love , chapter=18 citation , passage=The vindictive mockery in her voice made his brain quiver.}}
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1933 , author=H. G. Wells , title=The Shape of Things to Come citation , passage=The victors will exact vindictive penalties and the losers of course will undertake to pay, but none of them realizes that money is going to do the most extraordinary things to them when they begin upon that.}}
  • (obsolete) punitive
  • Synonyms

    * vengeful, revengeful, nasty * See also

    Derived terms

    * vindictively * vindictiveness