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combative

[kuhm-bat-iv, kom-buh-tiv, kuhm-]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

ready or inclined to fight; pugnacious: He displayed a most unpleasant, combative attitude.

Origin:
1825–35; combat + -ive

Related forms

com·bat·ive·ly, adverb

com·bat·ive·ness, com·ba·tiv·i·ty

[kom-buh-tiv-i-tee] , noun

un·com·bat·ive, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Combative is always a great word to know.

So is callithumpian. Does it mean:

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

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Example Sentences

The use of antipsychotic drugs to tamp down the agitation, combative behavior and outbursts of dementia patients has soared.

Otherwise your chair may see you as nitpicking and combative.

The authorities seem to have had second thoughts about encouraging more combative contests.

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The use of antipsychotic drugs to tamp down the agitation, combative behavior and outbursts of dementia patients has soared.

Otherwise your chair may see you as nitpicking and combative.

The authorities seem to have had second thoughts about encouraging more combative contests.

The often strained relationship between science and religion has become particularly combative lately.

He is a confronting sort of individual, polite but gruff, courteous but combative.

One group favored a more combative demand for inclusion.

They were combative and asked bizarre questions that had nothing to do with the job description.

But he is more worldly and conciliatory than his folksy, combative mentor.

Kirk was thoughtful and sympathetic but also decisive and combative.

So when it comes to battling the combative unions, they really have no hope of winning.

Michael, after some of the combative language out in the forums, your measured restraint and effluence are so damn welcome.

In their estimation, it was less combative than the other branches and more focused on helping/ humanitarian things.

Successful markets require independent and even combative standard-setters.

It was a reminder of what he has always been as a boxer and sometimes as a citizen: cold, cruel, combative.

Two rearing stallions appear locked in a combative embrace as they battle for the right to mate with the mares of a wild.

Downey's combative style and the aggressive and often intentionally.

Despite an occasional combative streak, the media hardly ever report corruption cases without official approval.

Nielsen switches from the blase to the dumbfounded to the combative to the hysterical.

The combative dogs are also bred to fight against one another.

He was combative and sometimes unpredictable and made many political enemies over the years.

But once the booze starts to flow and the guards come down, things begin to turn combative.

The congressman, proud and combative in proclaiming his innocence, had every right to demand a full airing of the charges.

Vrdolyak, who has sought in the campaign to soften his combative image.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

combative (ˈkɒmbətɪv, ˈkʌm-)

—*adj*
	eager or ready to fight, argue, etc; aggressive

'combatively

—*adv*

'combativeness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

combative

1834, from combat + -ive.

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Related Words

combatant

pugnacious

Matching Quote

"The comparison between Coleridge and Johnson is obvious in so far as each held sway chiefly by the power of his tongue. The difference between their methods is so marked that it is tempting, but also unnecessary, to judge one to be inferior to the other. Johnson was robust, combative, and concrete; Coleridge was the opposite. The contrast was perhaps in his mind when he said of Johnson: "his bow-wow manner must have had a good deal to do with the effect produced.""

-Virginia Woolf

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