[ad. L. exacerbātiōn-em, n. of action f. exacerbāre to EXACERBATE.]
1. The action of exacerbating or provoking to anger or hatred; the condition of being exacerbated; embitterment, irritation; an instance of the same.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Heb. iii. 15. Do not obdurate your hartes as in that exacerbation.
1605. G. Powel, Refut. Epist. Puritan-Papist, 39–40. It breedeth exacerbation of minde.
1638. Bp. Reynolds, Peace Ch., 21. Which course usually tendeth to mutuall exacerbation.
1797. Godwin, Enquirer, I. x. 86. Fits of peevishness and exacerbation.
1808. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 105. Political controversy, and the exacerbation of spirit into which it degenerates.
1827. Capt. T. Hamilton, Cyril Thornton (1845), 81. Those exacerbations of temper to which he was habitually liable.
1874. Farrar, Christ (ed. 2), II. xliii. 106, footn. The exacerbation between Jews and Samaritans was always at its worst during the anniversaries of the national feasts.
2. Increase in severity (of disease, sufferings, punishments, etc.); an instance of this. Chiefly Path., a paroxysm (of a fever, etc.); also transf.
1625. Hart, Anat. Ur., II. iii. 64. Coniectures of I know not what kinde of feauer, the which now and then was not without some exacerbations.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., 366/2. A Fit or Exacerbation at every Circuit of the blood.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 348. A great Exacerbation of this Pain the Moment after swallowing any thing.
1785. Paley, Mor. Philos. (1818), II. 297. A vigilant magistracy, an accurate police … contribute more to the restraint … of crimes than any violent exacerbations of punishment.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 111. He absolutely trembled with … the exacerbations of his valour.
1861. T. Graham, Pract. Med., 608. There are few diseases more painful to witness than is tetanus, especially during the exacerbations of the spasm.
1877. Roberts, Handbk. Med. (ed. 3), I. 80. Hectic fever is of a distinctly intermittent or remittent type, there being exacerbations.
