offend
/əˈfɛnd
/verb
1 [with object] Cause to feel upset, annoyed, or resentful: 17 per cent of viewers said they had been offended by bad language...
- We too have strong convictions, we too can be offended, insulted and annoyed, and we have to say we're not going to put up with it.
- If it was any other person, I would have been offended and annoyed that someone should try and exert such force over me.
- I appreciate that this is a very emotive and difficult subject to discuss openly, and I therefore apologise unreservedly if any part of my opinion has upset or offended you.
Synonyms
hurt someone's feelings, give offence to, affront, upset, displease, distress, hurt, wound, pain, injure, be an affront to, get/put someone's back up, disgruntle, put out, annoy, anger, exasperate, irritate, vex, pique, gall, irk, provoke, rankle with, nettle, needle, peeve, tread on someone's toes, ruffle, ruffle someone's feathers, rub up the wrong way, make someone's hackles rise, insult, humiliate, embarrass, mortify, scandalize, shock, outrage, spite
informal rile, miff, rattle, aggravate, put someone's nose out of joint, get up someone's nose, get under someone's skin, hack off, get someone's goat, get to, bug
British informal nark, get on someone's wick
North American informal tick off
vulgar slang piss off
1.1Be displeasing or cause problems to: the smell of ash offended him (as adjective offending) she eliminated the offending foods from her diet...
- Food allergies are untreatable, and people with these allergies must avoid offending foods, which can be impossible.
- Call me rigidly European, but it offends my sense of food order.
- He concluded that 52 per cent of sufferers had reported a significant reduction of their symptoms after changing their diet to remove offending foods from their diets.
Synonyms
displease, be displeasing to, be distasteful to, be disagreeable to, be offensive to, cause offence to, upset, put off, disgust, repel, revolt, be repugnant to, repulse, turn someone's stomach, sicken, nauseate, make sick, make someone's gorge rise
informal turn off
North American informal gross out
2 [no object] Commit an illegal act: a small hard core of young criminals who offend again and again...
- I'm very confident that we are making a big difference these days into the lives of young people who are likely to commit crimes and to offend.
- In many cases where young boys sexually offend there was a family history of emotional, sexual and physical abuse.
- The project has been introduced to help police solve crimes and deter criminals from further offending.
Synonyms
break the law, commit a crime, do wrong, sin, go astray, fall from grace, err, transgress
archaic trespass
2.1Break a commonly accepted rule or principle: those activities which offend against public order and decency...
- They are laws which offend against the principle of autonomy and they are laws which place both doctors and patients at risk.
- There are occasions when closed courts can be justified, although they offend against the principle that justice must be seen to be done.
- Evidence so admitted does not offend against the general rule.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French offendre, from Latin offendere 'strike against'.