insult
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: medicine
sciences
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle French insulter (modern French insulter (“to insult”)) or its etymon Latin īnsultō (“to spring, leap or jump at or upon; to abuse, insult, revile, taunt”), the frequentative form of īnsiliō (“to bound; to leap in or upon”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + saliō (“to bound, jump, leap; to spring forth; to flow down”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“to spring”)).
The noun is derived from Middle French insult (modern French insulte (“insult”)) or its etymon Late Latin insultus (“insult, reviling, scoffing”), from īnsiliō (“to bound; to leap in or upon”); see above.
Inflected forms:
form: insults
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: insulting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: insulted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: insulted
pos: verb
tags: past
form: insults
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To be insensitive, insolent, or rude to (somebody); to affront or demean (someone).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: - 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.
Nor would ſuch a man as thou art be deterr'd, were I to remind thee of the vengeance which thou mayeſt one day expect, if thou inſulteſt a woman of her character, family, and fortune.
Thou canst not tell where one drop of water or one grain of sand will be to-morrow noon; and yet with thy impotence thou insultest the sun!
It was a wordy, disconnected, frantic letter, a drunken letter in fact. It was like the talk of a drunken man, who, on his return home, begins with extraordinary heat telling his wife or one of his household how he has just been insulted, what a rascal has just insulted him, what a fine fellow he is on the other hand, and how he will pay that scoundrel out; [...]
gloss: To assail, assault, or attack; (specifically, military) to carry out an assault, attack, or onset without preparation.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
obsolete
transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (against or over someone).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: 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.
But be it ſo thou haſt loſt all, poore thou art deiected, in paine of body, griefe of mind, thine enimies inſult ouer thee, thou art as bad as Iob, yet tel me (ſaith Chryſoſtome), was Iob or the Diuell the greater conqueror, ſurely Job, [...]
gloss: To leap or trample upon.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
rare
examples: 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.
gloss: Action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude; (countable) a particular act or statement having this effect.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Preſent we meet thy ſneaking treacherous ſmiles;
 The harmleſs abſent ſtill thy ſneer reviles;
 Such as in thee all parts ſuperior find,
 The ſneer that marks the fool and knave combin'd;
 When melting pity would afford relief
 The ruthleſs ſneer that insult adds to grief.
[...] I will, however, enjoin you / Never to submit tamely to insults from any one! for, although I strongly urge you to show every possible respect and deference to all who are your superiors, as indeed due to them, I wish you to remember that, should they return you insults for such consistent conduct, it will be manly in you, after having given them a chance, by your calm and dignified remonstrance, to repair the injury, to resent the (by such an omission) enlarged offence, for thereupon no one can blame you if you firmly persevere in your efforts to obtain reparation.
To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!
gloss: Something that causes offence (for example, by being of an unacceptable quality).
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: 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.
The story we will share in the pages of this book, you as the reader and I as the author, contains a modicum of mathematics. I have used it sparingly, and judiciously, but to eliminate it altogether would have been dishonest, a form of intellectual deception and condescension, and an insult to your curiosity and intelligence.
gloss: Something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes; the injury so caused.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The exact nature of the teratological insult in diabetic pregnancy, and the cell biological details of the induced disturbances, are not known.
[M]ost investigators agreed with the characterization of early brain plasticity as a transiently available, ancillary system that is triggered by neural insult, and that serves, most importantly, as a means of shielding the developing organism from the potentially debilitating effects of neural insult.
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.
gloss: An assault or attack; (specifically, military, obsolete) an assault, attack, or onset carried out without preparation.
pos: noun
tags: also
archaic
countable
figuratively
examples: Then fir'd with pious Rage, the gen'rous Train / Run madly forward, to revenge the ſlain. / And ſome with eager haſte their Jav'lins throw; / And ſome, with Sword in hand, aſſault the Foe. / The wiſh'd Inſult the Latine Troops embrace; / And meet their Ardour in the middle Space.
The government was continually expoſed to the inſults of a faction, and deſtitute of the neceſſary reſources.
gloss: An act of leaping upon.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
examples: 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.
Related words: insolence
insultation
Derived words: complisult
counterinsult
insultable
insultant
insultathon
insultee
insultive
insultment
insult one's intelligence
insultory
insultproof
insultry
outinsult
uninsulted
add insult to injury
an insult to one is an insult to all
heap insult on injury
insult to injury
microinsult
Translations: