antagonist
noun
called also antagonistic muscle
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On the stage or screen, in a story or a novel, the protagonist is the main character and the antagonist is the opposing one. Pro- and ant- usually mark the good and bad characters, but not always; there may occasionally be an evil protagonist and a good antagonist. In the drama of the real world, it's especially hard to sort out which is which, so we usually speak of both parties to a conflict as antagonists. During a strike, for example, representatives of labor and management become antagonists; they often manage to antagonize each other, and the antagonism often remains after the strike is over.
Examples of antagonist in a Sentence
David Ansen, Newsweek, 18 June 2001
In the 1970s researchers discovered that the actions of estrogen and other hormones can be blocked chemically by drugs called hormone antagonists …
—David Plotkin, Atlantic, June 1996
If the new comptroller is a true antagonist of the seamy bond market practices he decried in the campaign, why has he installed as his first deputy the public finance director from the Dinkins administration who was Holtzman's accomplice in each of those deals.
—Wayne Barrett, Village Voice, March 1994
As in that film, Kopple not only draws an intimate portrait of the protagonists and antagonists in the strike, but also deftly locates the workers' struggle within a broad context of economic and political forces.
—Frank Thompson, Film Comment, January/February 1991
please name the novel's hero and his antagonist
his antagonist in the boxing match
Matt Fuchs, TIME, 21 Nov. 2024
Limits to the knowledge of an antagonist’s geography have long constrained the capabilities and intentions of any warring party.
—Henry A. Kissinger, Foreign Affairs, 18 Nov. 2024
In the documentary, Barrow also recalls that the antagonists that night in Club New York were familiar faces.
—Jayson Rodriguez, Variety, 18 Nov. 2024
Given the weird psychology that drove the antagonists in the earlier films — a crazed lady taxidermist and then a psychopathic thespian, respectively — the villains’ thirst for riches here seems a little rote, while the use of El Dorado as a device just piles cliché on top of triteness.
—Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for antagonist 
Dictionary Entries Near antagonist
Cite this Entry
“Antagonist.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antagonist. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
antagonist
noun
Medical Definition
antagonist
noun
called also antagonistic muscle
compare agonist sense 1, synergist sense 2
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