insult

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To be insensitive, insolent, or rude to (somebody)

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

   • - 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.
2. 2

   To assail, assault, or attack

   To assail, assault, or attack; (specifically, military) to carry out an assault, attack, or onset without preparation.

   • 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.
3. 3

   To behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (against or over someone).

   • And doe you ſe how he inſulteth ouer me, as though hee had gotten a great aduantage, and how hee taketh heere his reuenge vpon me, for the ſhipwracke hee ſuffered before, in the matter of his ſyllogyſme?
   • Now with the drops of this moſt balmie time, / My loue lookes freſh, and death to me ſubſcribes, / Since ſpight of him Ile liue in this poore time / While he inſults ore dull and ſpeachleſſe tribes.
4. ›+ 6 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To leap or trample upon.

      • So looks the pent-vp Lyon o're the Wretch, / That trembles vnder his deuouring Pawes: / And ſo he walkes, inſulting o're his Prey, / And ſo he comes, to rend his Limbes aſunder.
   2. 5

      Action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude

      Action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude; (countable) a particular act or statement having this effect.

      • To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!
   3. 6

      Something that causes offence (for example, by being of an unacceptable quality).

      • The way the orchestra performed tonight was an insult to my ears.
      • Such marriages he had held were insults to the manhood of any man and the womanhood of any woman. In such unions neither party could respect himself or his companion.
   4. 7

      Something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes

      Something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes; the injury so caused.

      • The exact nature of the teratological insult in diabetic pregnancy, and the cell biological details of the induced disturbances, are not known.
      • 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.
   5. 8

      An assault or attack

      An assault or attack; (specifically, military, obsolete) an assault, attack, or onset carried out without preparation.

      • The government was continually expoſed to the inſults of a faction, and deſtitute of the neceſſary reſources.
   6. 9

      An act of leaping upon.

      • The Bull's Inſult at Four ſhe [the mother cow] may ſuſtain; / But, after Ten, from Nuptial Rites refrain. / Six Seaſons uſe; but then releaſe the Cow, / Unfit for Love, and for the lab'ring Plough.

The neighborhood

• neighborinsolence
• neighborinsultation