Other forms: antagonised, antagonising, antagonises
To antagonise is to make somebody hostile towards you. Antagonise the neighbours, deliberately antagonising, antagonise them further.
It is nearly always avoidable, which is the whole point of the word, since antagonising somebody is making an enemy you did not need. Americans spell it antagonize, and in pharmacology a drug that antagonises a receptor blocks it.
1verbantagoniseTo make somebody hostile towards you.
“Try not to antagonise the neighbours by parking in front of their garage.”
antagonise is a provoking.
Also accepted in games: antagonize
Ancient Greek
ἀνταγωνίζομαι
English
antagonize
English, today
antagonise
antagonize comes from Ancient Greek ἀνταγωνίζομαι, from ἀντι- + ἀγωνίζομαι. by surface analysis, ant- + agon + -ize.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA