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alienating

   Also found in: Legal 0.03 sec.
al·ien·ate  (ly-nt, l--)
tr.v. al·ien·at·ed, al·ien·at·ing, al·ien·ates
1. To cause to become unfriendly or hostile; estrange: alienate a friend; alienate potential supporters by taking extreme positions. See Synonyms at estrange.
2. To cause to become withdrawn or unresponsive; isolate or dissociate emotionally: The numbing labor tended to alienate workers.
3. To cause to be transferred; turn away: "He succeeded . . . in alienating the affections of my only ward" (Oscar Wilde).
4. Law To transfer (property or a right) to the ownership of another, especially by an act of the owner rather than by inheritance.
[Latin alinre, alint-, from Latin alinus, alien; see alien.]
alien·ator n.
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Adj.1.alienating - causing hostility or loss of friendliness; "her sudden alienating aloofness"
antagonistic - arousing animosity or hostility; "his antagonistic brusqueness"; "Europe was antagonistic to the Unites States"


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
Nobody listened to him, and he did not succeed in alienating a single admirer from the president of the Gun Club.
From The Earth To The Moon by Verne, Jules View in context
The habits of Lydgate's profession, his home preoccupation with scientific subjects, which seemed to her almost like a morbid vampire's taste, his peculiar views of things which had never entered into the dialogue of courtship-- all these continually alienating influences, even without the fact of his having placed himself at a disadvantage in the town, and without that first shock of revelation about Dover's debt, would have made his presence dull to her.
Middlemarch by Eliot, George View in context
"Well, but then, my boy," said Uncle Glegg, whose good feeling led him to enter into Tom's wish, but who could not at once shake off his habitual abhorrence of such recklessness as destroying securities, or alienating anything important enough to make an appreciable difference in a man's property, "we should have to make away wi' the note, you know, if we're to guard against what may happen, supposing your father's made bankrupt----"
The Mill on the Floss by Eliot, George View in context
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