Definition of combative in English:

adjective

• Ready or eager to fight or argue.

  ‘he made some enemies with his combative style’

  More example sentences

  • ‘This combative style is not surprising given her background.’
  • ‘Even many who sympathize with his concerns find his combative style haughty and unforgiving.’
  • ‘Now 27, his combative style has become crucial to Leeds United's title challenge.’
  • ‘Correction must be firm enough for the dog to want to work to avoid it but not aggressive or combative.’
  • ‘The focus is on those people actually taking part in hostilities in a combative role.’
  • ‘Some families are more combative than others and, yes, it's normal for siblings to fight.’
  • ‘In that combative battlefield there seems to be no middle ground, just the immovable solidarity of two irreconcilable forces.’
  • ‘They were very combative, and very competitive internally and externally.’
  • ‘To prove his point, the combative attorney general played a familiar Washington game.’
  • ‘Footwear is in a seductive and strangely combative mood this season.’
  • ‘To label as combative this epic standoff from this morning's show would be to understate the man's pugilistic expertise.’
  • ‘Although combative in his ideas, he was the opposite of an ideological monomaniac.’
  • ‘If you said something combative, the person you spoke to is probably less than thrilled.’
  • ‘Then again, are the police trained to handle such cases that are obviously combative but also sensitive?’
  • ‘Political life is a combative life, with positions being tested and retested before they're taken out into the world.’
  • ‘He shows wonderful energy, putting himself all over the field to combative purpose, and he passes the ball well enough.’
  • ‘While this received plenty of laughs, the combative chairman was not amused as will be revealed later.’
  • ‘I like the combative side and I enjoy a challenge but I'm a genuine player.’
  • ‘At times she is combative, at times submissive, according to the situation and her state of mind.’
  • ‘Criticising the work of such a combative figure is hardly a low-risk occupation.’

  Synonyms

  pugnacious, aggressive, antagonistic, quarrelsome, argumentative, contentious, hostile, truculent, threatening, belligerent, bellicose, militant, warlike, warmongering, hawkish, militaristic

  View synonyms