How to Use passive-aggressive in a Sentence

passive-aggressive

adjective
Definition of passive-aggressivenext
  • Work emails can be the most fraught, with 91% saying that their co-workers are sometimes passive-aggressive over email.
    — Chandra Steele, PCMAG, 20 Apr. 2023
  • Upside Down Face = Same as above, but even more passive-aggressive.
    — Jennifer Jolly, USA TODAY, 21 Feb. 2023
  • Nearly 30, she’s been beaten down by a passive-aggressive mother and a cringing cousin all her life.
    — Sarah Schutte, National Review, 12 Mar. 2023
  • Is this the same woman who has a problem with Priscila but won’t say it to her face and also asks everyone a passive-aggressive question?
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 22 Apr. 2024
  • In addition to being the most popular app in China, WeChat may also be the most passive-aggressive.
    — Peter Hessler, The New Yorker, 26 June 2023
  • All this passive-aggressive, hard smile and veneer and everything.
    — Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2023
  • That old high school pal who always makes passive-aggressive comments about your outfit choices?
    — Korin Miller, Women's Health, 20 June 2023
  • Sometimes, the stress is unavoidable: Your three-year-old niece might scream for two hours straight or your sister-in-law might say something passive-aggressive about your parenting style.
    — Julia Ries, SELF, 10 June 2024
  • So last October, on the heels of Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal, out came that gray screen, held in front of Riley like a beacon of passive-aggressive football paranoia.
    — Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug. 2024
  • This might look like sending a passive-aggressive email or doing something small to block someone’s goals, like regurgitating a peer’s idea as your own.
    — Jade Thomas, CNBC, 29 July 2024
  • His folks often behave in a passive-aggressive manner toward me.
    — Amy Dickinson, The Mercury News, 8 Apr. 2024
  • My new thing is teaching people my technique for building wealth through passive-aggressive income.
    — Riane Konc, The New Yorker, 29 July 2024
  • Silence when a response is warranted can be a sign of passive-aggressive behavior.
    — Chris Westfall, Forbes, 19 Sep. 2024
  • That’ll teach ‘er! Miss Manners supposes that this is a good example of the passive-aggressive advice she is often accused of dispensing.
    — Nicholas Ivor Martin and Jacobina Martin, oregonlive, 24 Feb. 2023
  • Joe Biden, John Fetterman and their loved one's should not waste a moment on Carlson's passive-aggressive, bullying nonsense, a poor excuse for a human being, with no excuse for being so.
    — Monica Hesse, Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2023
  • The mother, Ellen (Kyra Sedgwick), is a micromanaging, passive-aggressive control freak.
    — Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 June 2024
  • Not surprisingly, her most popular character is a passive-aggressive mean girl who rules the coop during high school, only to peak before adulthood.
    — Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 4 Mar. 2024
  • But, the almost whispery voice and preternatural calm on display when Carl is on-camera turns instantly into a passive-aggressive control mechanism when the red light turns off.
    — Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 5 Apr. 2023
  • And then there’s his mother, Mimi, a passive-aggressive tornado of Oedipal attachment and regret.
    — Jesse Green, New York Times, 24 Aug. 2023
  • If a parent’s relationship with the child is shaky (read: contentious, angry, combative, passive-aggressive, fear-based), power struggles are more common.
    — Meghan Leahy, Washington Post, 14 Feb. 2024
  • Her scenes with Buckley, in which the irresistible urge of Irish bonhomie butts up against the immovable object of passive-aggressive politeness and repression, are like watching musicians play off against each other’s weaving melodies and riffs.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Mar. 2024
  • Sarcastic, passive-aggressive, and unfiltered, the British aristocrat cares very little about politesse—or her children.
    — Leena Kim, Town & Country, 31 Mar. 2023
  • But in no lifetime should a parent publicly slander their children, be passive-aggressive to the point of only acknowledging stepchildren, and spew this type of vitriol to strangers when there are options like a diary, therapy, and mobile phones.
    — Elizabeth Ayoola, Essence, 23 Apr. 2024
  • As two men who gave up on their dreams way before the film even started, Zahera (a Sorogoyen regular) and Anido are completely unsettling, couching the brothers’ bitterness in a litany of passive-aggressive language and behavior.
    — Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 July 2023
  • So much can be solved through direct communication over passive-aggressive silence.
    — Annie Lane, oregonlive, 30 June 2023
  • TikTok surveillance is a passive-aggressive strategy for one-upping a seatmate.
    — Amanda Hess, New York Times, 6 Oct. 2023
  • Remember that fielding complaints can be exhausting for the boss, who is often bombarded daily by pleas for resources, gripes about teammates and vaguely passive-aggressive demands from the head of that other department.
    — Rachel Feintzeig, WSJ, 27 Mar. 2023
  • This passive-aggressive girlboss duel never rises to the level of actual dramatic stakes.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 21 Sep. 2024
  • Reichardt, for her part, extends compassion in all directions, and crucially toward both sides of Lizzy and Jo’s difficult, passive-aggressive dynamic.
    — Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2023
  • This idea works in many different contexts, delivering a weird sort of polite-seeming passive-aggressive satisfaction to the person uttering it.
    — Amy Dickinson, Washington Post, 24 Nov. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'passive-aggressive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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