exacerbate

Exacerbate needs a problem that is already there. You cannot exacerbate a good day; you exacerbate a shortage, an injury, a delay. The Latin behind it is acerbus, bitter: to exacerbate is to make a thing more bitter than it already was. Usually nobody means harm; something is simply added at the worst moment. In the animation, a cold man feeds newspaper to a small fire until the fire grows a face.