to antagonize
28
7.6
- verb
- /ænˈtæɡəˌnaɪz/
- US
- It's best to remain calm and not antagonize your colleagues during a heated discussion.
- avoid antagonizing
- careful not to antagonize
- want to antagonize
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Watch on YouTubeShe can't afford to antagonize the the Russian regime.
- She can't afford to antagonize the the Russian regime.
- Like he said to his friend, I wanted to antagonize him.
- Yeah, and also for the for the people that just show up to protests to antagonize the crowd.
- I think he needs to know how these two characters complement each other and antagonize each other.
- You want to overcome your horrible history of mutually antagonizing, torturing, threatening, frightening one another?
- And what he did, he he was a spectacular misstep because what you did is you just antagonised a lot of people.
- And I have to say, if you continue to antagonize.
- So sometimes it's best to keep your mouth shut, be quiet and just sort of try not antagonise or whatever.
Examples
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Besides, such charges against an officer would only antagonize the court.
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Let's not antagonize this any more, okay?
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And then you antagonize people along the way of that.
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And the end that they were going for is a way to antagonize Russia.
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I would not antagonize her.
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Definitely do not want to antagonize the natives.
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I don't want to antagonize you.
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Well, I didn't mean to antagonize you.
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You don't want to antagonize anybody.
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If they're hostile, the best thing we can do is try not to antagonize them.
Fiction book (1998)
Synonyms
420
2.1
To say or do something rude to someone
283
2.8
Cause a person to feel hurt, upset and angry because of your words or actions
256
4.0
Annoy someone again and again to make them feel worried or uncomfortable
144
1.0
Make someone slightly angry or bothered by small repeated actions
126
4.8
To make people feel strong emotions like anger or fear
103
1.0
To make someone very upset or annoyed
87
3.6
Annoy someone again and again to make them react
86
5.8
To mock someone again and again to make them angry or upset
60
4.9
To bother someone again and again until they feel angry
46
7.1
To do or say something on purpose to annoy someone
38
7.4
To annoy someone a lot by small things another person does
30
5.0
Make someone very angry
27
3.7
To make someone very angry
15
4.2
Annoy someone and make them angrier
10
6.8
Make someone angry or annoyed on purpose by teasing them
8
8.4
To annoy someone or make them angry
2
7.9
To annoy someone or make them feel defensive
2
8.2
To offend someone and make them feel annoyed or hurt
1
8.0
To make someone feel unhappy or annoyed
To annoy someone so they become defensive
Antonyms
How Provoking
Surface Forms
Morphology
antagonize = antagonist (transparent) = antagon + ize
The verb is regularly formed from the noun 'antagonist' with the productive suffix '-ize' meaning 'to make or render', so the meaning is directly derivable.
Etymology
Antagonize comes from Greek parts anti- meaning 'against' and agon meaning 'contest' or 'struggle', and you can see agon in words like protagonist. So to antagonize someone is to make them 'against' you, to turn them into an opponent or to make them angry.