antagonize

verb an·tag·o·nize \ an-ˈta-gə-ˌnīz \

Updated on: 15 Apr 2018

Definition of antagonize

antagonized; antagonizing

transitive verb

1 : to incur or provoke the hostility of

His criticism antagonized his friends.

2 : to act in opposition to : counteract

The drug is antagonized by methylxanthines, such as caffeine and theophylline …
—Scientific American Medicine

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Examples of antagonize in a Sentence

He didn't mean to antagonize you.
Her comments antagonized many people.

Recent Examples of antagonize from the Web

Kurdish forces, once protected by the United States as central players in the ISIS fight, are now under assault from Turkey, while Iran consolidates its newfound influence in ways that are antagonizing Israel.

— evan horowitz, BostonGlobe.com, "In Syria, Trump’s options are all bad," 9 Apr. 2018
Lahren, whose insights into the gun-violence debate include antagonizing school-shooting survivors on Twitter, touts both the inevitability of assault and a gun-over-phone prioritization in her snappy caption.

— lilian min, The Cut, "Tomi Lahren’s Latest Cause Is Promoting Gun-Slinging Yoga Pants," 26 Mar. 2018
The new act authorizes high-level visits between the U.S. and Taiwan, something past administrations had avoided so as not to antagonize Beijing.

— eva dou, WSJ, "Taiwan Military Tails Chinese Aircraft Carrier," 21 Mar. 2018
Democrats have been antagonized by the GOP’s repeated attempts to repeal the law — and their success in the tax bill of undoing the individual mandate, which is expected to weaken the markets further.

— dylan scott, Vox, "Congress’s last best chance to stabilize Obamacare, explained," 19 Mar. 2018
Under instruction from his attorneys, Trump has in the past been careful not to publicly criticize Mueller by name or otherwise directly antagonize the special counsel, but rather to make more general criticisms.

— the washington post, OregonLive.com, "Trump rails against Mueller investigation, Comey and McCabe," 18 Mar. 2018
As the antagonizing Cheetah, Wiig would be following in a line of gifted actors who can deliver dark comic pathos in a superhero world, including Alfred Molina, Michael Keaton and the late Heath Ledger.

— michael cavna, miamiherald, "Kristen Wiig would be a natural ‘Wonder Woman 2’ villain — no matter what the internet says | Miami Herald," 1 Mar. 2018
Gorsuch had cut enforcement, accommodated polluters, and antagonized career staff.

— naomi fry, The New Yorker, "Scott Pruitt’s Dirty Politics," 3 Apr. 2017
The staff also discussed the need to help Tillerson leave in a respectful way without antagonizing the White House.

— elise labott, CNN, "State Department looks past Tillerson to get ready for Pompeo," 14 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'antagonize.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.