ANTAGONIST • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Antagonist

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/æntˈægənəst/ Listen

noun

antagonist n.

One who contends with another, especially in combat; an adversary; an opponent. "Antagonist of Heaven's Almighty King." "Our antagonists in these controversies."

(Anat.) A muscle which acts in opposition to another; as a flexor, which bends a part, is the antagonist of an extensor, which extends it.

(Med.) A substance which opposes the actions of another substance in the body, especially a drgu that counteracts the effects of another drug.

Synonyms: Adversary; enemy; opponent; foe; competitor. See Adversary.

adjective

Antagonist adj. Antagonistic; opposing; counteracting; as, antagonist schools of philosophy.

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Etymology of 'Antagonist'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Antagonist" Quotes from Famous Books

... politics nor in the quarrels of laborers and their employers have principles a place as "factors in the problem." Their use is to supply to both combatants a vocabulary of accusation and appeal. All the fierce talk of an antagonist's violation of those eternal principles upon which organized society is founded—and the rest of it—what is it but the cry of the dog with the chewed ear? The dog that is chewing foregoes the ...

— The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays - 1909 • Ambrose Bierce

... body, short of neck, and by no means nimble footed, cannot spring upon an adversary, choose a vulnerable spot, and bite to kill; but what it lacks in agility it makes up in length and strength of arm and hand. It seizes its antagonist's hand, carries it to its own mouth, and bites at the fingers. Usually, the bitten finger is severed as evenly as by a surgeon's amputation, and heals quite ...

— The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals • William T. Hornaday

... against the superior resources of a malicious priest, with the consequent destruction of the poor victim of his own sense of justice, might be compared with Kleist's masterly narrative Michael Kohlhaas, if in the treatment of the antagonist Kleist's incorruptible objectivity were not lacking and the whole did not, therefore, ultimately turn into pleading for a cause. But when satire fails to amuse for bitterness, and humor fails to conciliate, the pictures become almost too gloomy and the moral purpose too obtrusive. ...

— The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries - Masterpieces of German Literature Vol. 19 • Various

... he put pen to paper he had not thought of a word that he should write. The terms he had verbally proposed were soon put in writing, and there he might have stopped. But as he wrote a feeling of sympathy for his gallant antagonist came over him, and he added the extremely liberal terms with which his letter closed. The sight of Lee's fine sword suggested the paragraph allowing officers to retain their side-arms; and he ended with ...

— A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln - Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History • John G. Nicolay

... to his man, trembling with indignation, "get down there, and pick up all these chessmen, or I'll wring your neck for you." The fellow made a blow at him with his free hand, a blow that Coristine parried, and then the Irishman, letting go of his antagonist's arm, gave him a sounding whack with all the might of his right fist, that sent ...

— Two Knapsacks - A Novel of Canadian Summer Life • John Campbell

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