antagonism

/ænˌtægəˈnɪzəm/

Other forms: antagonisms

Antagonism means hostility. You might feel antagonism toward your annoying little sister, particularly if she's always borrowing your stuff without asking.

Antagonism is one of the few things you can share easily with someone you don't like. You might feel antagonism toward your school, or at least the idea of going to school. If you're an antagonistic person, you feel antagonism to lots of people and things.

Definitions of antagonism

1. noun

   an actively expressed feeling of dislike and hostility
   type of:

   dislike

   a feeling of aversion or antipathy

   enmity, hostility, ill will

   the feeling of a hostile person
2. noun

   a state of deep-seated ill-will
   synonyms: enmity, hostility

   examples:

   Cold War

   a state of political hostility that existed from 1945 until 1990 between countries led by the Soviet Union and countries led by the United States

   types:

   latent hostility, tension

   feelings of hostility that are not manifest

   state of war, war

   a legal state created by a declaration of war and ended by official declaration during which the international rules of war apply

   cold war

   a state of political hostility between countries using means short of armed warfare

   suspicion

   the state of being suspected

   proxy war

   a war instigated by a major power that does not itself participate

   cloud

   suspicion affecting your reputation

   type of:

   state

   the way something is with respect to its main attributes
3. noun

   the relation between opposing principles or forces or factors
   “the inherent antagonism of capitalism and socialism”

   type of:

   oppositeness, opposition

   the relation between opposed entities
4. noun

   (biochemistry) interference in or inhibition of the physiological action of a chemical substance by another having a similar structure
   type of:

   hinderance, hindrance, interference

   the act of hindering or obstructing or impeding