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antagonist|ænˈtægənɪst|
[ad. (perh. through Fr. antagoniste, 16th c. in Litt.) L. antagōnista (in Jerome), ad. Gr. ἀνταγωνιστ-ής opponent, rival, n. of agent f. ἀνταγωνίζ-εσθαι: see antagonize.]
1. One who contends with another in an athletic contest, a battle, or struggle for the mastery; an opponent, an adversary.
1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. v. ii, Your antagonist, or player against you. 1623Cockeram, Antagonist, an enemy. 1667Milton P.L. x. 387 Satan..Antagonist or Heaven's Almightie King. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. 246 He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. 1855Prescott Philip i. ii. (1857) 31 Philip ran the first course. His antagonist was the Count Mansfeldt, a Flemish captain of great renown.
2. An opponent in any sphere of human action, as politics, controversy, etc.
1626Pory in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 333 III. 247 Potter and Godfrey, antagonistes to the Pope's supremacy here. 1628Prynne Cens. Cozens 14 Marke what good vse our Antagonist makes of this conclusion. 1706Phillips, Antagonist..one that in Disputation or Arguing opposes another. 1831Brewster Newton (1855) II. xxiii. 307 This answer of Sir Isaac's..called into the field a fresh antagonist.
3. An impersonal agent acting in opposition.
1711Addison Spect. No. 10 ⁋3 A well written Book compared with its Rivals and Antagonists, is like Moses's Serpent. 1794Sullivan View Nat. II. 117 Fire and air act as antagonists in boiling. 1836J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. v. (1852) 136 Justice and mercy ought by no account to be considered as antagonists.
4. Phys. A muscle which counteracts another, contracting while the opposite one relaxes, and conversely.
1706Phillips, Antagonista or Antagonist (in Anat.) is taken for a Muscle of an opposite Situation or contrary Quality. 1751Chambers Cycl. s.v., We have some solitary muscles, without any Antagonists. 1880Syd. Soc. Lex. s.v., The flexor muscles are the antagonists of the extensors.
5. Used attrib. as n. in apposition, or adj.: = antagonistic.
1671Milton Samson 1628 None daring to appear antagonist. 1777Priestley Phil. Necess. §4. 31 A limb is kept motionless by the equal action of antagonist muscles. 1789T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 588 The antagonist nation. 1830Coleridge Ch. & State 141 Antagonist forces are necessarily of the same kind. 1830Sir J. Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 189 The quality of opacity is not a contrary or antagonist quality to that of transparency.
6. Biochem. A substance or organism that inhibits or interferes with the action of another substance or organism. Cf. antagonism 1 d. Freq. with defining word.
1889Shoemaker & Aulde Treat. Materia Med., Pharmacol. I. i. 122 After the ingestion of a poison its physiological antagonist might be administered with the expectation that the effects of the first poison might be counteracted by the second. Ibid. 123 Morphine and atropine are well-known physiological antagonists. 1961Lancet 12 Aug. 371/1 The adverse effects commonly produced by cytotoxic and cytostatic agents such as..folic-acid antagonists. Ibid. 2 Sept. 512/2 Only one other patient with periodic paralysis has been treated with an aldosterone antagonist. |