rebarbative
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of rebarbative
First recorded in 1890–95; from French, feminine of rébarbatif “disagreeable, repugnant,” from Middle French rebarber “to oppose, confront,” literally “to go beard to beard, head to head,” equivalent to ré- re- + barbe “beard,” from Latin barba “beard” ( beard ( def. ) ) + -atif -ative
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.
Why not place a bet on Tala Madani, whose desultory drawing and wildly rebarbative conceits might have the impact at the Met that artists like Matisse once had in Paris?
From Washington Post
Setting aside Mr Abbott’s notoriously rebarbative character, the appointment would be consistent with the myth, common among Brexit supporters, that trade deals are conjured into being by swaggering personalities.
From Washington Times
“Indeed, many of the apparently rebarbative aspects of Sontag’s personality are clarified in light of the alcoholic family system, as it was later understood,” Moser writes, and he goes on:
From The New Yorker
The work itself, the scholars are aware, is innately rebarbative.
From The New Yorker
Here, have a cushion shaped like a disembodied organ, or this stuffed approximation of an apex predator, or this flower whose stem is covered in vicious, rebarbative spines.
From The Guardian
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.
