Adjacent Words

Agonist definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

AG'ONIST, n. One who contends for the prize in public games. Milton has used Agonistes in this sense, and so called his tragedy, from the similitude of Sampson's exertions, in slaying the Philistines, to prize fighting. In church history, the disciples of Donatus are called agonistics.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the principal character in a work of fiction [syn: protagonist, agonist]
2: someone involved in a contest or battle (as in an agon) [ant: adversary, antagonist, opponent, opposer, resister]
3: a muscle that contracts while another relaxes; "when bending the elbow the biceps are the agonist"
4: (biochemistry) a drug that can combine with a receptor on a cell to produce a physiological reaction

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Late Latin agonista competitor, from Greek ag?nist?s, from ag?nizesthai to contend, from ag?n Date: circa 1623 1. one that is engaged in a struggle 2. [from antagonist] a. a muscle that is controlled by the action of an antagonist with which it is paired b. a chemical substance capable of combining with a specific receptor on a cell and initiating the same reaction or activity typically produced by the binding endogenous substance <dopaminergic agonists> — compare antagonist 2b

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Agonist Ag"o*nist, n. [Gr. ?.] One who contends for the prize in public games. [R.]