Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Contending against; acting in opposition; mutually opposing; opposite.
- n. Something that acts in an antagonistic manner; specifically, a muscle whose action counteracts that of another.
- In the psychology of visual sensation, complementary: as, blue and yellow are antagonistic colors.
Wiktionary
- adj. Contending or acting against; as, antagonistic forces.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Opposing in combat, combating; contending or acting against.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. characterized by antagonism or antipathy
- adj. indicating opposition or resistance
- adj. incapable of harmonious association
- adj. arousing animosity or hostility
- adj. used especially of drugs or muscles that counteract or neutralize each other's effect
Etymologies
- From antagonist + -ic (Wiktionary)
Examples
“But the effect of this is to place them in antagonistic relations in reference to the fiscal action of the government and the entire course of policy therewith connected.”
Write Your Calhounian Class Autobiography, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“Charging that the General Assembly of Illinois, as well as those of the other states, contain antagonistic elements which have retarded progress at the state level, the report recited how the labour movement, more and more, carries its appeals to the federal government.”
“There was, as Margaret truly said, but one right and one wrong; the painful right, and the pleasant wrong, stood now in antagonistic contrast to each other.”
“They reinforce the notion of antagonistic policing, rather than the consensual, even contractual law enforcement that has, at least notionally, been the traditional mark of the copper on his beat.”
“In the first case, you can call the antagonistic principle “the existing order,” in the second, “antiquated prejudice.””
“The prevalent mode of social interaction today is what David Riesman, in The Lonely Crowd, referred to as antagonistic cooperation, in which a cult of teamwork conceals the struggle for survival within bureaucratic organizations.”
“These color-pairs are known as antagonistic or complementary colors.”
“And these two conditions we may call antagonistic, as far as our efforts at practical settlement are concerned.”
“This combination has been well called antagonistic coöperation.”
Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals
“They're definitely more typically antagonistic, which is something I have to learn how to do!" he says.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘antagonistic’.
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probablyankita's list
Words are all I have to take your heart away
apartheid, techno-klutz, logorrheic, gordian knot, anodyne, odor of sanctity, finders keepers, foot-in-mouth dis..., dutch uncle, masquerade, smoke signals, furtive glance and 320 more...
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gre words
convoluted, deride, melancholy, antagonize, antagonize, deference, portentous, prodigious, ruminate, ineffable, turgid, mossy and 58 more...
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five syllables
ontogenesis, phylogenesis, concatenation, androgenesis, extra textual, inexorably, spagyrically, apophenia, iatrochemist, monocotyloid, morphological, parthenogenic and 998 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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Hiroe's Words
facetious, bardic, twatwaffle, cattywampus, splendiferous, zomg, merf, fwaa, fnord, tortify, schwiz, blort and 225 more...
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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My Self-Descriptors: A Mirror of Text
Read this list, and read it well. When you finish, you'll know me better than my mother. That is, unless she reads this list too.
libertarian, unorthodox, unfinished, sincere, frugal, lanky, introspective, critical, laid-back, taciturn, lexiphilic, kindly and 115 more...
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Basic Vocaulary
censure, appease, affable, conviction, heretical, mundane, exalted, detached, paradigm, charisma, conformity, allude and 96 more...
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I
The Unique
egoist, individualist, loner, hateful, asocial, inactive, anarchist, misanthrope, fascist, disturbed, bored, isolationist and 111 more...
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nfrank's Words
antediluvian, equivocate, inchoate, denouement, effulgent, edify, endemic, palimpsest, apropos, circumnavigate, circumlocution, cognoscente and 484 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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MY LIST
ABHOR, BIGOT, KINDLE, NOXIOUS, BILK, NUANCE, ENGENDER, BILLOWING, COWER, HARANGUE, REPLETE, ABROGATE and 518 more...
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GRE uncommon
patronage, expletive, exhort, exegesis, execrable, excommunicate, evince, escarpment, ersatz, ergo, epoxy, snare and 1202 more...
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Words.
synesthesia, synaesthesia, twilit, twilight, abysmal, perpetual, mellifluous, incandescent, brilliant, radiant, articulate, discombobulated and 55 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for antagonistic.
dmcleod0914 "I kept my eyes down as I went to sit by him, bewildered by the antagonistic stare he'd given me."--Twilight, Stephenie Meyer, pg.23 Oct 1, 2010