| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| insult |
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| SYLLABICATION: | in·sult |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   n-s lt |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: in·sult·ed, in·sult·ing, in·sults
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1a. To treat with gross insensitivity, insolence, or contemptuous rudeness. See synonyms at offend. b. To affront or demean: an absurd speech that insulted the intelligence of the audience. 2. Obsolete To make an attack on. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | Archaic 1. To behave arrogantly. 2. To give offense; offend: a speech that was intended to insult. | | NOUN: | (nslt )1. An offensive action or remark. 2a. Medicine A bodily injury, irritation, or trauma. b. Something that causes bodily injury, irritation, or trauma: “the middle of the Bronx, buffeted and poisoned by the worst environmental insults that urban America can dish out” (William K. Stevens, New York Times November 12, 1991). | | ETYMOLOGY: | French insulter, from Old French, to assault, from Latin  nsult re, to leap at, insult, frequentative of nsilre, to leap upon : in-, on; see in–2 + salre, to leap; see sel- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | in·sulter —NOUN
in·sulting·ly —ADVERB
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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