v., -fend·ed, -fend·ing, -fends. v.tr.
- To cause displeasure, anger, resentment, or wounded feelings in.
- To be displeasing or disagreeable to: Onions offend my sense of smell.
- To transgress; violate: offend all laws of humanity.
- To cause to sin.
- To result in displeasure: Bad manners may offend.
- To violate a moral or divine law; sin.
- To violate a rule or law: offended against the curfew.
[Middle English offenden, from Old French offendre, from Latin offendere.]
SYNONYMS offend, insult, affront, outrage. These verbs mean to cause resentment, humiliation, or hurt. To offend is to cause displeasure, wounded feelings, or repugnance in another: "He often offended men who might have been useful friends" (John Lothrop Motley). Insult implies gross insensitivity, insolence, or contemptuous rudeness: "I . . . refused to stay any longer in the room with him, because he had insulted me" (Anthony Trollope). To affront is to insult openly, usually intentionally: "He continued to belabor the poor woman in a studied effort to affront his hated chieftain" (Edgar Rice Burroughs). Outrage implies the flagrant violation of a person's integrity, pride, or sense of right and decency: "Agnes . . . was outraged by what seemed to her Rose's callousness" (Mrs. Humphry Ward).
