antipathetic
Americanadjective
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opposed, averse, or contrary; having or showing antipathy.
They were antipathetic to many of the proposed changes
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causing or likely to cause antipathy.
The new management was antipathetic to all of us.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- antipathetically adverb
- antipatheticalness noun
Etymology
Origin of antipathetic
1630–40; < Greek antipathḗs opposed in feeling ( anti- + -pathēs, adj. derivative of páthos pathos ), with -etic by analogy with pathetic
Explanation
If you have very negative, even hostile feelings about something, you're antipathetic toward it. If you're antipathetic to a particular basketball team, you'll root enthusiastically for whatever team they're playing against. The adjective antipathetic and noun antipathy come from the Greek antipathes, "an opposition of feeling," and its roots anti, "opposite," and pathein, "to suffer or feel." It's not quite full-on hatred, but an antipathetic feeling is a strong aversion or distaste. If your cousins are antipathetic to furry animals, you might want to reconsider inviting them to stay for two weeks — they won't enjoy hanging out with your four cats, three dogs, and affectionate chinchilla.
Vocabulary lists containing antipathetic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It would be more of a problem if I were unreasonably antipathetic toward, say, obeying traffic laws.
From Washington Post • May 1, 2022
Can people who make calculated use of the charge to manipulate other people's fears, genuinely feel threatened by anti-Semitism, or wholly antipathetic to it?
From Salon • Jan. 24, 2021
Like Lear, the role she came out of retirement to play in London two years ago, Jackson seems to have grown antipathetic to the finery that conceals the truth of unaccommodated man.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 26, 2018
It’s curious, though, that even the party that is relatively antipathetic toward business and capitalism describes such efforts using the language of advertising.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 19, 2015
The old Dynasty was profoundly antipathetic to the majority of the country.
From The Recollections of Alexis de Tocqueville by Tocqueville, Alexis de
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
