Offensive \Of*fen"sive\, n.
The state or posture of one who offends or makes attack;
aggressive attitude; the act of the attacking party; --
opposed to defensive.
[1913 Webster]
To take the offensive, To act on the offensive, To go on
the offensive, to be the attacking party; to initiate
hostilities.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Offensive \Of*fen"sive\, a. [Cf. F. offensif. See Offend.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Giving offense; causing displeasure or resentment;
displeasing; annoying; as, offensive words.
[1913 Webster]
2. Giving pain or unpleasant sensations; disagreeable;
revolting; noxious; as, an offensive smell; offensive
sounds. "Offensive to the stomach." --Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
3. Making the first attack; assailant; aggressive; hence,
used in attacking; -- opposed to defensive; as, an
offensive war; offensive weapons.
[1913 Webster]
League offensive and defensive, a leaque that requires all
the parties to it to make war together against any foe,
and to defend one another if attacked.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Displeasing; disagreeable; distasteful; obnoxious;
abhorrent; disgusting; impertinent; rude; saucy;
reproachful; opprobrious; insulting; insolent; abusive;
scurrilous; assailant; attacking; invading.
[1913 Webster] --
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
offensive
adj 1: violating or tending to violate or offend against;
"violative of the principles of liberty"; "considered
such depravity offensive against all laws of humanity"
[syn: violative]
2: for the purpose of attack rather than defense; "offensive
weapons" [ant: defensive]
3: causing anger or annoyance; "offensive remarks" [ant: inoffensive]
4: morally offensive; "an unsavory reputation"; "an unsavory
scandal" [syn: unsavory, unsavoury] [ant: savory]
5: unpleasant or disgusting especially to the senses;
"offensive odors" [ant: inoffensive]
6: of an offensive substitute for inoffensive terminology;
"`nigger' is a dysphemistic term for `African-American'"
[syn: dysphemistic] [ant: euphemistic]
7: causing or able to cause nausea; "a nauseating smell";
"nauseous offal"; "a sickening stench" [syn: nauseating,
nauseous, noisome, loathsome, sickening, vile]
n : the action of attacking an enemy [syn: offense, offence]
WordNet (r) 2.0
325 Moby Thesaurus words for "offensive":
Fescennine, Rabelaisian, abhorrent, abominable, abusive,
aggravated assault, aggression, aggressive, amphibious attack,
antagonistic, appalling, armed assault, arrant, assailing,
assailment, assault, atrocious, attack, attacking, awful, backhand,
backhanded, bad, bad-smelling, banzai attack, barfy, base,
battling, bawdy, beastly, bellicose, belligerent, below contempt,
beneath contempt, blameworthy, blitz, blitzkrieg, bloodthirsty,
bloody, bloody-minded, blue, boorish, brackish, breakthrough,
brutal, caddish, calumnious, charge, chauvinist, chauvinistic,
chintzy, cloying, coarse, combative, contemptible, contentious,
contumelious, counterattack, counteroffensive, coup de main,
crippling attack, crude, dead set at, degrading, deplorable,
descent on, despicable, detestable, dire, dirty, disagreeable,
discourteous, disgusting, displeasing, disrespectful, diversion,
diversionary attack, dreadful, drive, egregious, enemy, enormous,
evil, execrable, fecal, ferocious, fetid, fierce, fighting, filthy,
flagrant, flank attack, forbidding, foul, foul-mouthed,
foul-spoken, foul-tongued, frightful, frontal attack, frowsty,
frowy, frowzy, full of fight, fulsome, funky, fusty, gamy,
gas attack, ghastly, graveolent, grievous, grim, grisly, gross,
gruesome, hateful, hawkish, head-on attack, heinous, hideous, high,
horrible, horrid, hostile, humiliating, icky, ignoble, ill-bred,
ill-smelling, impertinent, impolite, improper, impudent, impure,
in bad taste, inappropriate, inconsiderate, indecent, indecorous,
indelicate, inelegant, infamous, infiltration, inimical,
insensitive, insolent, insulting, ithyphallic, jingo, jingoish,
jingoist, jingoistic, lamentable, left-handed, lewd,
lightning attack, lightning war, loathsome, lousy, loutish, louty,
lurid, maggoty, malodorous, martial, mass attack, mawkish,
megadeath, mephitic, miasmal, miasmic, mildewed, mildewy, militant,
militaristic, military, moldy, monstrous, mugging, musty, nasty,
nauseant, nauseating, nauseous, nefarious, nidorous, noisome,
notorious, noxious, objectionable, obnoxious, obscene, odious,
odorous, offense, olid, on the offensive, onset, onslaught,
outrageous, overkill, overripe, panzer warfare, pitiable, pitiful,
poisonous, pornographic, provocative, pugnacious, push, putrescent,
putrid, quarrelsome, rancid, rank, raunchy, reasty, reasy,
rebarbative, reechy, reeking, reeky, regrettable, repellent,
repelling, reprehensible, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, ribald,
rotten, rude, run against, run at, rush, saber-rattling, sad,
salacious, sally, sanguinary, sanguineous, savage, scandalous,
schlock, scrappy, scurrile, scurrilous, scurvy, shabby, shameful,
shock tactics, shocking, shoddy, sickening, smellful, smelling,
smelly, smoking-room, smutty, soldierlike, soldierly, sordid,
sortie, spoiled, squalid, stenchy, stinking, strike, strong,
stuffy, sulfurous, sultry, tactless, tasteless, terrible,
threatening, too bad, trigger-happy, truculent, unappetizing,
unbecoming, unbeseeming, unchaste, uncivil, unclean, uncongenial,
undignified, unfeminine, unfitting, unfriendly, ungenteel,
ungentle, ungentlemanly, ungrateful, unladylike, unmannerly,
unpacific, unpalatable, unpeaceable, unpeaceful, unpleasant,
unprintable, unprovoked assault, unrefined, unrepeatable, unsavory,
unseemly, unsolicitous, unspeakable, unsuitable, untasteful,
unwholesome, vile, villainous, vomity, vulgar, warlike,
warmongering, warring, weevily, woeful, worst, worthless, wretched,
yucky
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
OFFENSIVE, adj. Generating disagreeable emotions or sensations, as
the advance of an army against its enemy.
"Were the enemy's tactics offensive?" the king asked. "I should
say so!" replied the unsuccessful general. "The blackguard wouldn't
come out of his works!"
THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993)
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