Insult

/ɪnˈsʌlt/ · verb

Meaning

(transitive) To be insensitive, insolent, or rude to (somebody); to affront or demean (someone)..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive) To be insensitive, insolent, or rude to (somebody); to affront or demean (someone).
2. (transitive, also figuratively, obsolete) To assail, assault, or attack; (specifically, military) to carry out an assault, attack, or onset without preparation.
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (against or over someone).
4. (intransitive, obsolete, rare) To leap or trample upon.
5. (uncountable) Action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude; (countable) a particular act or statement having this effect.
6. (countable) Something that causes offence (for example, by being of an unacceptable quality).
7. (countable, uncountable, medicine) Something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes; the injury so caused.
8. (countable, also figuratively, archaic) An assault or attack; (specifically, military, obsolete) an assault, attack, or onset carried out without preparation.

Example Sentences

- Marvel owns your gods! - Insulting is not arguing.

And why I pray you? who might be your mother That you inſult, exult, and all at once Ouer the wretched?

The Foe hayles on thy head; and in thy Face / Inſults, and trenches; leaues thee, no worlds grace; / The walles, in which thou art beſieged, ſhake.

Nor would ſuch a man as thou art be deterr'd, were I to remind thee of the vengeance which thou mayeſt one day expect, if thou inſulteſt a woman of her character, family, and fortune.

Thou canst not tell where one drop of water or one grain of sand will be to-morrow noon; and yet with thy impotence thou insultest the sun!

It was a wordy, disconnected, frantic letter, a drunken letter in fact. It was like the talk of a drunken man, who, on his return home, begins with extraordinary heat telling his wife or one of his household how he has just been insulted, what a rascal has just insulted him, what a fine fellow he is on the other hand, and how he will pay that scoundrel out; [...]

Giue me thy knife, I will inſult on him, Flattering my ſelfes, as if it were the Moore, Come hither purpoſely to poyſon me.

Not with more madneſs, rolling from afar, / The ſpumy Waves proclaim the watry War. / And mounting upwards, with a mighty Roar, / March onwards, and inſult the rocky ſhoar.

Synonyms for insult

Antonyms for insult

Related Words

Word Forms

• insults
• insulting
• insulted

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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