ANTAGONISE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does antagonise mean? 

• ANTAGONISE (verb)
  The verb ANTAGONISE has 2 senses:

1. act in opposition to

2. provoke the hostility of

  Familiarity information: ANTAGONISE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ANTAGONISE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they antagonise    ... he / she / it antagonises   
Past simple: antagonised   
Past participle: antagonised   
-ing form: antagonising   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Act in opposition to

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

antagonise; antagonize; counteract

Hypernyms (to "antagonise" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

antagonism (the relation between opposing principles or forces or factors)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Provoke the hostility of

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

antagonise; antagonize

Context example:

Don't antagonize your boss

Hypernyms (to "antagonise" is one way to...):

annoy; bother; chafe; devil; get at; get to; gravel; irritate; nark; nettle; rag; rile; vex (cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to antagonise Sue

Derivation:

antagonism (an actively expressed feeling of dislike and hostility)

antagonism (a state of deep-seated ill-will)

 Context examples 

That is to say, the extracts taken from these items of clothing behaved like the female hormone and they antagonised male hormones.

(Nine out of ten pairs of baby socks on the market contain traces of bisphenol A and parabens, University of Granada)