Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Insult
1.
The act of leaping on; onset; attack.
[Obs.]
Dryden.
2.
Gross abuse offered to another, either by word or act; an act or speech of insolence or contempt; a deprecatory remark; an affront; an indignity.
Syn. – Affront; indignity; abuse; outrage; contumely. See
Affront
. In-sult′
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Insulted
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Insulting
.] [F.
insulter
, L. insultare
, freq. fr. insilire
to leap into or upon; pref. in-
in, on + salire
to leap. See Salient
.] 1.
To leap or trample upon; to make a sudden onset upon.
[Obs.]
Shak.
2.
To treat with abuse, insolence, indignity, or contempt, by word or action; to abuse;
as, to call a man a coward or a liar, or to sneer at him, is to
. insult
himIn-sult′
,Verb.
I.
1.
To leap or jump.
Give me thy knife, I will
insult
on him. Shakespeare
Like the frogs in the apologue,
insulting
upon their wooden king. Jer. Taylor.
2.
To behave with insolence; to exult.
[Archaic]
The lion being dead, even hares
insult
. Daniel.
An unwillingness to
insult
over their helpless fatuity. Landor.
Webster 1828 Edition
Insult
IN'SULT
,Noun.
1.
The act of leaping on. [Little used.]2.
Any gross abuse offered to another, either by words or actions; act or speech of insolence or contempt. The ruthless sneer that insult adds to grief.
Definition 2025
insult
insult
English
Verb
insult (third-person singular simple present insults, present participle insulting, simple past and past participle insulted)
- (transitive) To offend (someone) by being rude, insensitive or insolent; to demean or affront (someone). [from 17th c.]
- (obsolete, intransitive) To behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (over, against). [16th-19th c.]
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.3.3:
- thou hast lost all, poor thou art, dejected, in pain of body, grief of mind, thine enemies insult over thee, thou art as bad as Job […].
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.3.3:
- (obsolete) To leap or trample upon; to make a sudden onset upon.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
Synonyms
Antonyms
Translations
to offend
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Noun
insult (plural insults)
- An action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude.
- Savage
- the ruthless sneer that insult adds to grief
- 1987, Jamie Lee Curtis, A Fish Called Wanda:
- To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!
- Savage
- Anything that causes offence/offense, e.g. by being of an unacceptable quality.
- The way the orchestra performed tonight was an insult to my ears.
- (medicine) Something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes.
- 2006, Stephen G. Lomber, Jos J. Eggermont, Reprogramming the Cerebral Cortex (page 415)
- […] most investigators agreed with the characterization of early brain plasticity as a transiently available, ancillary system that is triggered by neural insult […]
- 2011, Terence Allen and Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2011, p. 96:
- Within the complex genome of most organisms there are alternative multiple pathways of proteins which can help the individual cell survive a variety of insults, for example radiation, toxic chemicals, heat, excessive or reduced oxygen.
- 2006, Stephen G. Lomber, Jos J. Eggermont, Reprogramming the Cerebral Cortex (page 415)
- (obsolete) The act of leaping on; onset; attack.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
Synonyms
- (deliberatedly intended to be rude): abuse (uncountable), affront, offence (UK)/offense (US), pejorative, slam, slight, slur
- (thing causing offence by being of unacceptable quality): disgrace, outrage
- See also Wikisaurus:offense
Antonyms
Translations
action or speech deliberately intended to be rude
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anything that causes offence/offense by being of an unacceptable quality