antagonize

an·tag·o·nize | \ an-ˈta-gə-ˌnīz

antagonized; antagonizing

Definition of antagonize

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 on the Web Moving its major from Trump National has been debated internally at the PGA for more than two years, but executives have been reluctant to antagonize a famously vindictive man who controls the Internal Revenue Service. — Eamon Lynch, Detroit Free Press, "Donald Trump is a scar on the game of golf: Opinion," 10 Jan. 2021 That served to alienate and antagonize nearly half the country and heighten the tribal instincts that are poisoning American politics. — Karl Rove, WSJ, "Biden Needs a Conciliatory Tone," 16 Dec. 2020 Because Elena’s family lacks real development, and the police seem to needlessly antagonize Grace, the show risks asking viewers to root for the Frasers, who get to keep their hands clean by paying others to do much of their dirty work. — Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, "On TV, Having Wealth Means You Get to Suffer Beautifully," 27 Oct. 2020 Yes, to antagonize Iran's hawks and make diplomacy less likely to succeed. — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, "Iran suffers more humiliation with killing of nuclear chief. But no one in the world's most febrile region wants war," 28 Nov. 2020 Her letter appeared designed not to antagonize Mr. Trump and his supporters. — Maggie Haberman, New York Times, "Trump Administration Approves Start of Formal Transition to Biden," 23 Nov. 2020 Washington commentators at a recent Atlantic Council forum assessed that pushing too hard for a pro-European shift in Belarus would antagonize Russia and upset the balance of power in Europe. — Abraham Mahshie, Washington Examiner, "Lithuania at unexpected forefront in Belarus democracy push," 23 Sep. 2020 Recurring misconduct doesn’t only antagonize regulators. — Lananh Nguyen, Bloomberg.com, "Banks Pile Up Fines Under Trump, Casting Light on Misconduct," 3 Nov. 2020 When people work together to survive and find something that resembles peace, Mando has a resolute mission to punch, shoot, or kill anyone—or anything—who might antagonize them. — Sam Machkovech, Ars Technica, "Mandalorian season 2 premiere: This is (still) the way," 30 Oct. 2020

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.