How to Use passive-aggressive in a Sentence

passive-aggressive

adjective

• 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
• His folks often behave in a passive-aggressive manner toward me.
  — Amy Dickinson, The Mercury News, 8 Apr. 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
• 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
• 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
• The language requires a kind of politeness that, translated literally, sounds subservient, even passive-aggressive.
  — Madeleine Schwartz Soneela Nankani Tanya Pérez Brian St. Pierre, New York Times, 14 May 2024
• My spouse manages anger poorly, often lashing out (verbally) in unkind ways, retreating into sullen withdrawal or making sharp passive-aggressive digs at me.
  — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 2 Nov. 2023
• Body positivity in this sense is almost always presented with a sneaky sprinkling of passive-aggressive degradation.
  — Chloe Laws, Allure, 30 Nov. 2023
• Still, numerous metro Detroiters, imbued with a century-long culture of driving alone, and addicted to personal tastes in music or podcasts, just might play passive-aggressive on carpooling.
  — Bill Laytner, Detroit Free Press, 29 Jan. 2024
• The rhythms of meaningless, passive-aggressive discourse are so acutely nailed here, and column favorite Eric Rahill turns in another gently menacing performance as a maverick student.
  — Luke Kelly-Clyne, Vulture, 31 Aug. 2023
• There are aspects to your account that make your husband’s behavior toward you seem deliberately hostile, punitive and extremely passive-aggressive.
  — Amy Dickinson, Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2024
• There are aspects to your account that make your husband’s behavior toward you seem deliberately hostile, punitive, and extremely passive-aggressive.
  — Amy Dickinson, Detroit Free Press, 11 Jan. 2024

Last Updated: 30 Aug 2024