offense

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Related to offense: No offense meant, take offense

of·fense

(ə-fĕns′)

a. The act of causing anger, resentment, displeasure, or affront.

b. The state of being offended.

a. A violation or infraction of a moral or social code; a transgression or sin.

b. A transgression of law; a crime.

3. Something that outrages moral sensibilities: Genocide is an offense to all civilized humans.

4. (ŏf′ĕns′) The act of attacking or assaulting.

5. (ŏf′ĕns′) Sports

a. The means or tactics used in attempting to score.

b. The team in possession of the ball or puck, or those players whose primary duty is to attempt to score.

c. Scoring ability or potential.

[Middle English, from Old French ofense, from Latin offēnsa, from feminine past participle of offendere, to offend; see offend.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

of•fense

or of•fence

(əˈfɛns or, for 9, ˈɔ fɛns, ˈɒf ɛns)

n.

1. a violation or breaking of a social or moral rule; transgression; sin.

2. a transgression of the law; misdemeanor.

3. something that offends or displeases.

4. the act of offending or displeasing.

5. the feeling of resentment caused: to give offense.

6. aggression or assault: weapons of offense.

7. a person, army, etc., that is attacking.

a. the team unit responsible for scoring in a game.

b. a pattern or style of scoring attack.

c. offensive effectiveness; ability to score.

9. Archaic. injury, harm, or hurt.

[1325–75; Middle English, in part < Middle French offens < Latin offēnsus collision, knock, dislike, derivative of offendere (see offend); in part < Middle French offense < Latin offēnsa striking against, displeasure, derivative of offendere]

syn: See crime.

offense

An action that breaks a law, especially a crime.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	offense - a lack of politeness; a failure to show regard for others; wounding the feelings or others offensive activity, discourtesy, offence behavior, conduct, doings, behaviour - manner of acting or controlling yourself derision, ridicule - the act of deriding or treating with contempt indelicacy - an impolite act or expression insolence - an offensive disrespectful impudent act affront, insult - a deliberately offensive act or something producing the effect of deliberate disrespect; "turning his back on me was a deliberate insult" presumption - a kind of discourtesy in the form of an act of presuming; "his presumption was intolerable" rebuff, slight - a deliberate discourteous act (usually as an expression of anger or disapproval)
	2.	offense - a feeling of anger caused by being offended; "he took offence at my question" umbrage, offence anger, ire, choler - a strong emotion; a feeling that is oriented toward some real or supposed grievance
	3.	offense - (criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act; "a long record of crimes" crime, criminal offence, criminal offense, law-breaking, offence evildoing, transgression - the act of transgressing; the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle; "the boy was punished for the transgressions of his father" barratry - the offense of vexatiously persisting in inciting lawsuits and quarrels capital offense - a crime so serious that capital punishment is considered appropriate cybercrime - crime committed using a computer and the internet to steal a person's identity or sell contraband or stalk victims or disrupt operations with malevolent programs felony - a serious crime (such as murder or arson) forgery - criminal falsification by making or altering an instrument with intent to defraud fraud - intentional deception resulting in injury to another person Had crime - (Islam) serious crimes committed by Muslims and punishable by punishments established in the Koran; "Had crimes include apostasy from Islam and murder and theft and adultery" highjack, hijack - seizure of a vehicle in transit either to rob it or divert it to an alternate destination mayhem - the willful and unlawful crippling or mutilation of another person infraction, misdemeanor, misdemeanour, violation, infringement - a crime less serious than a felony perpetration, committal, commission - the act of committing a crime attempt, attack - the act of attacking; "attacks on women increased last year"; "they made an attempt on his life" Tazir crime - (Islam) minor crimes committed by Muslims; crimes that are not mentioned in the Koran so judges are free to punish the offender in any appropriate way; "in some Islamic nations Tazir crimes are set by legislation" regulatory offence, regulatory offense, statutory offence, statutory offense - crimes created by statutes and not by common law thuggery - violent or brutal acts as of thugs high treason, lese majesty, treason - a crime that undermines the offender's government vice crime - a vice that is illegal victimless crime - an act that is legally a crime but that seem to have no victims; "he considers prostitution to be a victimless crime" war crime - a crime committed in wartime; violation of rules of war criminal law - the body of law dealing with crimes and their punishment abduct, kidnap, nobble, snatch - take away to an undisclosed location against their will and usually in order to extract a ransom; "The industrialist's son was kidnapped" shanghai, impress - take (someone) against his will for compulsory service, especially on board a ship; "The men were shanghaied after being drugged" commandeer, highjack, hijack, pirate - take arbitrarily or by force; "The Cubans commandeered the plane and flew it to Miami" skyjack - subject an aircraft to air piracy; "the plane was skyjacked to Uzbekistan" carjack - take someone's car from him by force, usually with the intention of stealing it; "My car was carjacked last night!" extort - obtain through intimidation blackmail - obtain through threats scalp - sell illegally, as on the black market bootleg - sell illicit products such as drugs or alcohol; "They were bootlegging whiskey" black market, run - deal in illegally, such as arms or liquor fob off, foist off, palm off - sell as genuine, sell with the intention to deceive push - sell or promote the sale of (illegal goods such as drugs); "The guy hanging around the school is pushing drugs" black marketeer - deal on the black market pyramid - use or deal in (as of stock or commercial transaction) in a pyramid deal ransom, redeem - exchange or buy back for money; under threat traffic - deal illegally; "traffic drugs" rustle, lift - take illegally; "rustle cattle" shoplift - steal in a store stick up, hold up - rob at gunpoint or by means of some other threat mug - rob at gunpoint or with the threat of violence; "I was mugged in the streets of New York last night" pirate - copy illegally; of published material plagiarise, plagiarize, lift - take without referencing from someone else's writing or speech; of intellectual property crib - take unauthorized (intellectual material) bribe, grease one's palms, buy, corrupt - make illegal payments to in exchange for favors or influence; "This judge can be bought" rake off - take money from an illegal transaction buy off, pay off - pay someone with influence in order to receive a favor
	4.	offense - the team that has the ball (or puck) and is trying to score offence team, squad - a cooperative unit (especially in sports) defending team, defence, defense - (sports) the team that is trying to prevent the other team from scoring; "his teams are always good on defense"
	5.	offense - the action of attacking an enemy offence, offensive military operation, operation - activity by a military or naval force (as a maneuver or campaign); "it was a joint operation of the navy and air force" counteroffensive - a large scale offensive (more than a counterattack) undertaken by a defending force to seize the initiative from an attacking force dirty war - an offensive conducted by secret police or the military of a regime against revolutionary and terrorist insurgents and marked by the use of kidnapping and torture and murder with civilians often being the victims; "thousands of people disappeared and were killed during Argentina's dirty war in the late 1970s" push back, rollback - the act of forcing the enemy to withdraw

offense

noun

1. An act that offends a person's sense of pride or dignity:

affront, contumely, despite, indignity, insult, outrage, slight.

Idiom: slap in the face.

2. Extreme displeasure caused by an insult or slight:

dudgeon, huff, miff, pique, resentment, ruffled feathers, umbrage.

3. A wicked act or wicked behavior:

crime, deviltry, diablerie, evil, evildoing, immorality, iniquity, misdeed, peccancy, sin, wickedness, wrong, wrongdoing.

4. Something that offends one's sense of propriety, fairness, or justice:

crime, outrage, sin.

5. A serious breaking of the public law:

crime, illegality, misdeed.

Law: felony.

6. The act of attacking:

aggression, assailment, assault, attack, attempt, offensive, onrush, onset, onslaught, strike.

Translations

إسَاءَةٌذنب

trestný činurážka

fornærmelse

Vergehen

αδίκημα

infracción ofensa agravio delito

rikos

délit injure offense

prekršaj

reato affronto offesa

違反

위반

brott

การกระทำผิดกฎหมาย

saldırı

sự vi phạm

犯罪

offense

→ إسَاءَةٌ trestný čin fornærmelse Vergehen αδίκημα infracción rikos délit prekršaj reato 違反 위반 overtreding straffbar handling obraza ofensa оскорбление brott การกระทำผิดกฎหมาย saldırı sự vi phạm 犯罪

offence

, offense

n. ofensa, agravio, afrenta.

References in classic literature ?

"Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him?

View in context

This can never be tied down by such strict rules, either in the delineation of the offense by the prosecutors, or in the construction of it by the judges, as in common cases serve to limit the discretion of courts in favor of personal security.

Would it be proper that the persons who had disposed of his fame, and his most valuable rights as a citizen in one trial, should, in another trial, for the same offense, be also the disposers of his life and his fortune?

The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.

View in context

To kill the page was no crime -- it was her right; and upon her right she stood, serenely and unconscious of offense. She was a result of generations of training in the unexamined and unassailed belief that the law which permitted her to kill a subject when she chose was a perfectly right and righteous one.

Dear me, for what trifling offenses the most of those forty-seven men and women were shut up there!

Consider it: among these forty-seven captives there were five whose names, offenses, and dates of incar- ceration were no longer known!

View in context

THE SECOND class of powers, lodged in the general government, consists of those which regulate the intercourse with foreign nations, to wit: to make treaties; to send and receive ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls; to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; to regulate foreign commerce, including a power to prohibit, after the year 1808, the importation of slaves, and to lay an intermediate duty of ten dollars per head, as a discouragement to such importations.

The power to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations, belongs with equal propriety to the general government, and is a still greater improvement on the articles of Confederation.

View in context

Not a single Indian war has yet been occasioned by aggressions of the present federal government, feeble as it is; but there are several instances of Indian hostilities having been provoked by the improper conduct of individual States, who, either unable or unwilling to restrain or punish offenses, have given occasion to the slaughter of many innocent inhabitants.

The pride of states, as well as of men, naturally disposes them to justify all their actions, and opposes their acknowledging, correcting, or repairing their errors and offenses. The national government, in such cases, will not be affected by this pride, but will proceed with moderation and candor to consider and decide on the means most proper to extricate them from the difficulties which threaten them.

View in context

the accused Jerko Ivankovic Lijanovic, under Sections 1 and 10 of the Operative Part of Judgment - the criminal offense of Organized Crime under Article 250(3) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CC BiH), in connection with Article 29 of the CC BiH, and as read with the criminal offense of Money Laundering under Article 209(3) of the CC BiH;