aggravate / irritate
Making a condition worse vs. provoking annoyance or inflammation.
Aggravate means make worse: The delay aggravated the shortage. A common error is to use aggravate to mean annoy, as in His interruptions aggravated me. For annoyance, use annoy or irritate: His interruptions annoyed me. Irritate also means inflame a tissue: The wool irritated his skin.
Examples
UseScratching will aggravate the rash. (make the rash worse)
UseThe repeated questions irritated the panel. (annoyed the panel)
AvoidThe repeated questions aggravated the panel. (if you mean only annoyance)
Dictionaries now also list aggravate meaning “annoy.” However, many people still consider this use an error, and they judge the speaker who uses aggravate this way.