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offensive - definition and meaning
offensive
love
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Causing anger, displeasure, or resentment.
- adjective Disagreeable to the senses.
- adjective Making a physical or military attack.
- adjective Of, relating to, or designed for attack.
- adjective Sports Of or relating to a team having possession of a ball or puck.
- noun An attitude or position of attack.
- noun A physical or military attack or assault.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Serving to offend, assail, or attack; used in attack: opposed to defensive: as, offensive weapons.
- Consisting in or proceeding by attack; assailant; invading; aggressive: opposed to defensive.
- Serving to injure; injurious.
- Causing or giving offense; fitted or intended to offend or give displeasure; provocative of displeasure; insulting; annoying; displeasing: as, an offensive remark; offensive behavior.
- Disgusting; disagreeable; giving pain or unpleasant sensations: as, an offensive smell.
- noun With the definite article: An aggressive attitude or course of operations; a posture of attack: as, to act on or assume the offensive.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Giving offense; causing displeasure or resentment; displeasing; annoying.
- adjective Giving pain or unpleasant sensations; disagreeable; revolting; noxious
- adjective Making the first attack; assailant; aggressive; hence, used in attacking; -- opposed to
defensive - adjective a leaque that requires all the parties to it to make war together against any foe, and to defend one another if attacked.
- noun The state or posture of one who offends or makes attack; aggressive attitude; the act of the attacking party; -- opposed to
defensive . - noun to be the attacking party; to initiate hostilities.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Causing
offense ; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, or hatred. - adjective Relating to an
offense orattack , as opposed todefensive . - adjective team sports Having to do with play directed at scoring.
- noun countable, military An attack.
- noun uncountable The posture of attacking or being able to attack.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective violating or tending to violate or offend against
- adjective unpleasant or disgusting especially to the senses
- adjective causing anger or annoyance
- adjective causing or able to cause nausea
- adjective morally offensive
- adjective for the purpose of attack rather than defense
- adjective substitute a harsher or distasteful term for a mild one
- noun the action of attacking an enemy
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From French offensif, from Latin as if *offensivus, from offendere ("to offend"), past participle offensus; see offend.
Support
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Examples
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"The media have chosen to use the term offensive," he said.
Derrick Crowe: Secretary Gates and Friends Backpedaling on Kandahar 2010
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State senator Frederica Wilson from Miami says she finds the term offensive and she says, "An alien to me is someone from outer space."
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As I say in my long list of comments, not only is the term offensive, it is terribly imprecise and journalistically worthless.
Introducing "Think Twice" Word Detection System To OpEdNews 2007
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As I say in my long list of comments, not only is the term offensive, it is terribly imprecise and journalistically worthless.
Introducing "Think Twice" Word Detection System To OpEdNews 2007
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Glenn Greenwald, for example, takes on Ann Althouse who claims to find the term offensive as well as Glenn Reynolds who calls it "a variety of bigotry."
Hullabaloo 2006
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"The media have chosen to use the term offensive," he said.
Jihad Monitor 2010
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"The media have chosen to use the term offensive," he said.
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"We cannot say the term offensive for Kandahar," said the Afghan National Army officer in charge here, Gen. Sher Mohammad Zazai.
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"The media have chosen to use the term offensive," he said.
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"We cannot say the term offensive for Kandahar," said the Afghan National Army officer in charge here, Gen. Sher Mohammad Zazai.
Related Words
synonyms (332)
Words with the same meaning
- Fescennine
- Rabelaisian
- abhorrent
- abominable
- abusive
- aggravated assault
- aggression
- aggressive
- amphibious attack
- annoying
- antagonistic
- appalling
- armed assault
- arrant
- assailant
- assailing
- assailment
- assault
- atrocious
- attack
- attacking
- awful
- backhand
- backhanded
- bad
- bad-smelling
- banzai attack
- barfy
- base
- battling
- bawdy
- beastly
- bellicose
- belligerent
- below contempt
- beneath contempt
- blameworthy
- blitz
- blitzkrieg
- bloodthirsty
- bloody
- bloody-minded
- blue
- boorish
- brackish
- breakthrough
- brutal
- caddish
- calumnious
- charge
- chauvinist
- chauvinistic
- chintzy
- cloying
- coarse
- combative
- contemptible
- contentious
- contumelious
- counterattack
- counteroffensive
- coup de main
- crippling attack
- crude
- dead set at
- degrading
- deplorable
- descent on
- despicable
- detestable
- dire
- dirty
- disagreeable
- discourteous
- disgusting
- displeasing
- disrespectful
- distasteful
- diversion
- diversionary attack
- dreadful
- drive
- egregious
- enemy
- enormous
- evil
- execrable
- fecal
- ferocious
- fetid
- fierce
- fighting
- filthy
- flagrant
- flank attack
- forbidding
- foul
- foul-mouthed
- foul-spoken
- foul-tongued
- frightful
- frontal attack
- frowsty
- frowy
- frowzy
- full of fight
- fulsome
- funky
- fusty
- gamy
- gas attack
- ghastly
- graveolent
- grievous
- grim
- grisly
- gross
- gruesome
- hateful
- hawkish
- head-on attack
- heinous
- hideous
- high
- horrible
- horrid
- hostile
- humiliating
- icky
- ignoble
- ill-bred
- ill-smelling
- impertinent
- impolite
- improper
- impudent
- impure
- in bad taste
- inappropriate
- inconsiderate
- indecent
- indecorous
- indelicate
- inelegant
- infamous
- infiltration
- inimical
- insensitive
- insolent
- insulting
- invading
- ithyphallic
- jingo
- jingoish
- jingoist
- jingoistic
- lamentable
- left-handed
- lewd
- lightning attack
- lightning war
- loathsome
- lousy
- loutish
- louty
- lurid
- maggoty
- malodorous
- martial
- mass attack
- mawkish
- megadeath
- mephitic
- miasmal
- miasmic
- mildewed
- mildewy
- militant
- militaristic
- military
- moldy
- monstrous
- mugging
- musty
- nasty
- nauseant
- nauseating
- nauseous
- nefarious
- nidorous
- noisome
- notorious
- noxious
- objectionable
- obnoxious
- obscene
- odious
- odorous
- offense
- olid
- on the offensive
- onset
- onslaught
- opprobrious
- outrageous
- overkill
- overripe
- panzer warfare
- pitiable
- pitiful
- poisonous
- pornographic
- provocative
- pugnacious
- push
- putrescent
- putrid
- quarrelsome
- rancid
- rank
- raunchy
- reasty
- reasy
- rebarbative
- reechy
- reeking
- reeky
- regrettable
- repellent
- repelling
- reprehensible
- reproachful
- repugnant
- repulsive
- revolting
- ribald
- rotten
- rude
- run against
- run at
- rush
- saber-rattling
- sad
- salacious
- sally
- sanguinary
- sanguineous
- saucy
- savage
- scandalous
- schlock
- scrappy
- scurrile
- scurrilous
- scurvy
- shabby
- shameful
- shock tactics
- shocking
- shoddy
- sickening
- smellful
- smelling
- smelly
- smoking-room
- smutty
- soldierlike
- soldierly
- sordid
- sortie
- spoiled
- squalid
- stenchy
- stinking
- strike
- strong
- stuffy
- sulfurous
- sultry
- tactless
- tasteless
- terrible
- threatening
- too bad
- trigger-happy
- truculent
- unappetizing
- unbecoming
- unbeseeming
- unchaste
- uncivil
- unclean
- uncongenial
- undignified
- unfeminine
- unfitting
- unfriendly
- ungenteel
- ungentle
- ungentlemanly
- ungrateful
- unladylike
- unmannerly
- unpacific
- unpalatable
- unpeaceable
- unpeaceful
- unpleasant
- unprintable
- unprovoked assault
- unrefined
- unrepeatable
- unsavory
- unseemly
- unsolicitous
- unspeakable
- unsuitable
- untasteful
- unwholesome
- vile
- villainous
- vomity
- vulgar
- warlike
- warmongering
- warring
- weevily
- woeful
- worst
- worthless
- wretched
- yucky
equivalents (53)
Other words for 'offensive'
- abhorrent
- abusive
- antipersonnel
- assaultive
- attacking
- charnel
- creepy
- detestable
- disgustful
- disgusting
- distasteful
- foul
- ghastly
- ghoulish
- hideous
- hit-and-run
- horrid
- horrific
- incursive
- invading
- invasive
- loathly
- loathsome
- marauding
- morbid
- objectionable
- obnoxious
- obscene
- odoriferous
- offending
- on the offensive
- opprobrious
- outrageous
- predatory
- raiding
- rank
- repellant
- repellent
- repelling
- repugnant
- repulsive
- revolting
- scrimy
- scurrilous
- sepulchral
- skanky
- tip-and-run
- to act on the offensive
- to go on the offensive
- unwholesome
- verminous
- wicked
- yucky
afredricks commented on the word offensive
In some cultures, it's offensive to take pictures of people without their permission.
May 20, 2009