combative
adjUK /ˈkɒm.bə.tɪv/ · US /kəmˈbæ.tɪv/
Etymology From combat + -ive.
1
Given to fighting; disposed to engage in combat; pugnacious.
- Their combative conduct leads to many problems.
- He finds, not “demigods” but “a combative group of exhausted, drunken, broken, petty, partisan, scheming, squabbling, bloviating, sensory-deprived, underoxygenated, fed-up, talked-out, overheated delegates so distraught they threatened violence, secession.2013, The Ultimate Daily Show and Philosophy:
1 more example
- Salvation arrived - as it so often has in this nerve-shredding campaign - through Dykes, the combative striker.2021 October 12, Jamie Lyall, “Faroe Islands 0-1 Scotland”, in BBC Sport:
- Synonyms
- aggressive, antagonistic, assaultive, bellicose, belligerent, combative, martial, militaristic, philopolemic, philopolemical, pugnacious, quarrelsome, truculent, warlike
- Antonyms
- calm, conflict-free, dovish, nonaggressive, nonbellicose, nonbelligerent, noncombative, nonmartial, nonmilitaristic, nonviolent, pacific, passive, peaceful, unaggressive, unbellicose, unbelligerent, uncombative, unjingoistic, unmilitaristic, unwarlike
- Derived terms
- combatively, combativeness, combativity, noncombative, uncombative
- Hypernyms
- enthusiastic, hostile, passionate
- Hyponyms
- bloodthirsty, hawkish, jingoistic