aggression
- 1Hostile or destructive behavior or actions directed toward other people, animals, or things.
Years of bullying had taught him to meet every problem with aggression.
The coach warned that aggression on the field would draw penalties.
Similarhostility, violence, belligerence
Oppositegentleness, passivity
Note
Here the hostility need not involve weapons at all. Michael Cottakis, writing in 2018, calls a steel and aluminum tariff "an act of aggression," carrying the language of invasion into trade. The fixed phrase act of aggression is the bridge. It started with the first strike in a war and now frames any hostile move, from a tariff to a rough tackle on the field.
- 2The act of starting hostilities or invading another country, especially as the side that strikes first.
The treaty was meant to prevent any further aggression between the two states.
Historians still debate which side committed the first act of aggression.
Similarhostility, attack, invasion
Note
The Latin root explains the sense: aggredior meant "to approach, address, attack," so aggression is the move toward someone, the first step rather than the reply. That is why it is set against defense. Hagai El-Ad (2019) insists that control and dispossession are "not 'defensive'" but "an organized, ongoing aggression." It is usually uncountable (an act of aggression), but it can take an article when one sustained campaign is meant.
- 3The ongoing practice or habit of launching attacks on others.
The empire's long history of aggression left its neighbors permanently wary.
Repeated aggression from the rival gang finally forced the police to step in.
Similarbelligerence, hostility, militarism
- 4The initiation or threat of conflict, used as a means of coercion.
The regime relied on aggression to keep neighboring states in line.
Threats and open aggression replaced any attempt at honest negotiation.
Similarintimidation, coercion, belligerence
Note
A libertarian term of art, where the threat counts as much as the blow. Coercion is aggression even if no force is ever used, so a demand backed by menace falls inside the word. Unlike the act of invasion, it is not about who fires first in a war. It is a test for whether one person's dealings with another are free or forced.
Practice
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Origin
This word came through Middle French aggression from Latin aggressio, based on aggressus, the past participle of aggredior meaning "to approach, address, or attack."