AskDefine | Define offensive

Dictionary Definition

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]

User Contributed Dictionary





  1. Causing offense; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, or hatred
    Most feminists find pornography offensive.
  2. (team sports) Having to do with play directed at scoring.
    The offensive coordinator is responsible for ordering all rushing plays.


(team sports) having to do with play directed at scoring


  1. countable military An attack.
    The Marines today launched a major offensive.
  2. The posture of attacking or being able to attack.
    He took the offensive in the press, accusing his opponent of corruption.
an attack
ability to attack



  1. Feminine plural form of offensivo

Extensive Definition

Offensive may relate to:
offensive in Dutch: Offensief

Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words

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
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