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rebarbative

[ree-bahr-buh-tiv] / riˈbɑr bə tɪv /


ADJECTIVE
frightening
Synonyms
Antonyms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Sparkling and rebarbative, abrasive and relentlessly performative, it is, in other words, classic Will Self.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026

Why not place a bet on Tala Madani, whose desultory drawing and wildly rebarbative conceits might have the impact at the Met that artists like Matisse once had in Paris?

From Washington Post • Apr. 27, 2023

Kazin, whom Schwartz called “a serious menace to criticism,” was venomous, rebarbative and bitter.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 6, 2017

Men sponge off him for both ideas and money; women on the whole find him rebarbative – "his looks and his silences alarmed them".

From The Guardian • Aug. 24, 2012

Nobody as rebarbative as Cicero, in a state as turbulent as Rome during the first century bc, could expect not to run into trouble sooner or later.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith