Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. UK police/Und.) the difficulties that both sides of the professional law make for each other.

1969		M. Puzo Godfather 148: I’ll have to retire pretty soon. Can’t stand the aggravation, all day I get aggravation.
1970		‘Metropolitan Police Sl.’ in P. Laurie Scotland Yard (1972) 320: aggravation: harassment imposed by either the police or criminals on each other.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Healthy Competition’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] It was the end of aggravation, end of story.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) G. Tremlett Little Legs 1: I’ve had a lot of aggravation to put up with.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 22: The word would get about that Mister Mortimer was on the firm and they would get less aggravation.

2. violence, quarrels, unpleasantness in general.

1934		N. Lindsay Cautious Amorist 74: For all your talk, you’ll admit there’s aggravation havin’ a wench about your eye all day and no proper use made of her.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 112: We were looking for aggravation with them.
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] I got permanent aggravation off downstairs about who cleaned the fucking staircase.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 301: He’s not going to kill me; that would cause too much aggravation.