# aggressive

Pronunciation: say "uh-GRES-iv" /əˈɡɹɛs.ɪv/

## Adjective

1. Behaving in a combative, attacking way; prone to fight or argue, often unfairly.
   - Simple: Quick to attack, fight, or argue with other people.
   - _Her aggressive driving frightened the other passengers._
   - _The negotiator's aggressive tone made the whole meeting tense._
2. Spreading quickly or extensively, as a virulent infection or malignant tumor does.
   - Simple: Spreading fast and hard to stop, as a serious illness can.
   - _The tumor proved aggressive, doubling in size within a few weeks._
   - _Patients with aggressive lymphomas often need immediate chemotherapy._
3. Involving high risk taken in pursuit of a potentially high reward.
   - Simple: Taking big risks to try to win big rewards.
   - _The fund manager favored an aggressive strategy heavy in tech stocks._
   - _Their aggressive expansion relied on borrowing very large sums._
4. Applied at every available opportunity; used as fully and as often as possible.
   - Simple: Used or applied as often and as much as possible.
   - _The compiler performs aggressive inlining to reduce function-call overhead._
   - _Aggressive caching keeps as much data in memory as it can._
7. Of a woman, having a masculine or butch gender presentation. *(US)*
   - Simple: Describing a woman who looks and acts in a masculine way.
   - _Her aggressive presentation included a fade and a tailored suit._
   - _She described her aggressive identity with quiet pride._

## Noun

5. A person who behaves in a combative, attacking manner toward others.
   - Simple: A person who often attacks, fights, or argues with others.
   - _He was the office aggressive, always ready to provoke a confrontation._
   - _The two aggressives clashed before the referee finally intervened._
6. A woman, especially a Black woman, who has a masculine gender presentation; a butch. *(US)*
   - Simple: A Black woman who dresses and acts in a masculine way.
   - _At the ball, several aggressives walked in crisp menswear._
   - _She has identified as an aggressive since college._

## Origin

Formed from "aggress" plus the suffix "-ive," comparable to French "agressif."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/aggressive (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).