antagonistic
Americanadjective
-
acting in opposition; opposing, especially mutually.
-
hostile; unfriendly.
adjective
-
in active opposition
-
mutually opposed
Other Word Forms
- antagonistically adverb
- nonantagonistic adjective
- nonantagonistically adverb
Etymology
Origin of antagonistic
First recorded in 1625–35; antagonist + -ic
Explanation
If you're antagonistic, you're hard to get along with. Harmony is not your friend — you prefer hostility and struggle. If you're antagonistic to your little brother, you're always picking on him and giving him a hard time — causing him agony — a word that's buried in antagonistic. Even drugs or chemicals can be antagonistic: if you take a sleeping pill and then follow it with a few cups of espresso, the interaction is likely to be antagonistic. The sleeping pill and the caffeine struggle against each other and you're not likely to get much sleep.
Vocabulary lists containing antagonistic
Opposites Attract
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A Wrinkle in Time
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Divergent
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
California must also contend with a federal government antagonistic toward offshore wind.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026
Peller noted “consternation around the potential for an antagonistic approach towards not only issuers but broader financials despite what was believed to be a lenient regulatory environment.”
From MarketWatch • Jan. 13, 2026
This was confirmed when Egypt traded in its limited success to come over to the American side, but Syria remained stubbornly antagonistic.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 11, 2025
According to Nishimura, "These findings reveal that the same stem cell population can follow antagonistic fates -- exhaustion or expansion -- depending on the type of stress and microenvironmental signals."
From Science Daily • Oct. 25, 2025
This sort of thing has been happening to others in my faction for months now—the Erudite have been releasing antagonistic reports about Abnegation, and it has begun to affect the way we relate at school.
From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
