Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or having a personality disorder characterized by habitual passive resistance to demands for adequate performance in occupational or social situations, as by procrastination, stubbornness, sullenness, and inefficiency.
Wiktionary
- adj. psychology Showing passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to following authoritative instructions in interpersonal or occupational situations.
Examples
“Drake and Shebib's artistic stance on Take Care effectively hamstrings the production simply so that Drake can voice his, yeah, passive-aggressive rhymes within an atmosphere that lulls us into listening, seduces us into staying with him.”
“Oh no, another big decision, another headache, 50 calls to an insurance company, another go-round with the passive-aggressive phone answerer who, even though she's never met me, calls me Freddy as she puts me on hold.”
The Wall Street Journal: Word of the Decade: 'Unsustainable'
“But the Pulitzer Board's passive-aggressive attitude towards online writing is the comedy gift that keeps on giving.”
“Both of us were locked in a passive-aggressive war of silent wills.”
“All these expressions contained a depth of passive-aggressive mastery that impressed me greatly, no matter how frustrating, and I started to think Umm Hassane could make millions teaching corporate communication seminars.”
“Now, that's some passive-aggressive trash talk: Not only does Thomas let in easy goals, he doesn't have the decency to slide a return compliment across the rink!”
The Wall Street Journal: Playoff Fireworks, Minus the Stargazing
“What is the younger generation to you but a chance to flex your ego and demonstrate what you can control through these passive-aggressive pronouncements of disappointment and threats of monetary burdens.”
“To the U.S., the Chinese will be passive-aggressive," says Patrick Chovanec , a business professor at Beijing's Tsinghua University.”
The Wall Street Journal: China Is Expected to Resist Oil Shift
“Caravaggio did some more obviously Venetian paintings for del Monte featuring boy musicians, but the passive-aggressive, famished way in which they gaze toward us is wholly un-Venetian.”
“Then, to top it all off, electronic media are perfect for exhibiting passive-aggressive tendencies.”
The"Instant Society" Presumptions « L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘passive-aggressive’.
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gression
digress, progress, agressive, regression, congress, egression, retrogression, transgression, tigress, passive-aggressive, introgression, labiogression and 2 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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My Stupid Day
Words that happened today. Outside of this site, I mean.
overcast, shower, storm, voicemail, email, music, contract, passive-aggressive, megabytes, filtered, mocha, antacid and 44 more...
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