antagonistic meaning and examples

2025-09-05

Meaning

“Antagonistic” is an adjective that describes a hostile, unfriendly, or opposing attitude. It often refers to people, actions, or behaviors that create conflict or resistance.

Grammar and Usage

  • Part of speech: Adjective

  • Used to describe a person’s attitude, relationship, or response.

  • Typical structures:

    • antagonistic toward someone
    • an antagonistic relationship
    • feel antagonistic about something

Common Phrases

  • antagonistic attitude → hostile or unfriendly attitude
  • antagonistic relationship → a relationship full of conflict or opposition
  • antagonistic response → a reaction showing hostility or resistance
  • antagonistic forces → opposing or conflicting powers

Collocations

  • Noun + antagonistic: antagonistic behavior, antagonistic forces, antagonistic reaction
  • Verb + antagonistic: become antagonistic, act antagonistic
  • Adverb + antagonistic: openly antagonistic, highly antagonistic, deeply antagonistic

Examples

  1. The two politicians have an antagonistic relationship.
  2. She was openly antagonistic toward her new boss.
  3. His antagonistic behavior created tension in the office.
  4. The two nations remained antagonistic despite peace talks.
  5. The students gave an antagonistic response to the new rules.
  6. The movie depicts the struggle between antagonistic forces.
  7. He became antagonistic whenever anyone challenged his ideas.
  8. Their antagonistic attitudes made cooperation impossible.
  • Synonyms: hostile, unfriendly, opposed, combative, adversarial
  • Related: conflicting, resistant, aggressive