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offensive English

Meaning offensive meaning

What does offensive mean?
Definitions in simple English

offensive

Something offensive is mean, insulting, and unpleasant. He said something so offensive to her that she cried. Most feminists find pornography offensive. She noticed an offensive smell from the blocked drain. If something is offensive, it has to do with a play where the team is trying to score. The offensive coordinator is responsible for ordering all rushing plays.

offensive

An attack. The Marines today launched a major offensive. In a position of attacking or being able to attack. He took the offensive in the press, accusing his opponent of corruption.

offensive

(= violative) violating or tending to violate or offend against violative of the principles of liberty considered such depravity offensive against all laws of humanity (= offense) the action of attacking an enemy for the purpose of attack rather than defense offensive weapons causing anger or annoyance offensive remarks unpleasant or disgusting especially to the senses offensive odors (= dysphemistic) substitute a harsher or distasteful term for a mild one 'nigger' is a dysphemistic term for 'African-American' (= unsavory, unsavoury) morally offensive an unsavory reputation an unsavory scandal (= nauseating, nauseous, sickening) causing or able to cause nausea a nauseating smell nauseous offal a sickening stench

Synonyms offensive synonyms

What other words have the same or similar meaning as offensive?

Topics offensive topics

What do people use offensive to talk about?

Examples offensive examples

How do I use offensive in a sentence?

Simple sentences

The bold knight didn't hesitate to go on the offensive when the time came.
They gave me a very offensive nickname.
Offensive behaviour can result from an inferiority complex.
I find just the memory of his overly polite patronizing manner really offensive.
The speaker's comments were highly offensive.
Your attitude towards women is offensive.
The smell was offensive.
Several soldiers were injured in the offensive.
The plans for the offensive were secret.
The police conducted an offensive against some drug dealers.
Tom is offensive.
Life is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanism of the Universe.
As an American, I find that offensive.
You may think your comment was innocuous, but I found it very offensive.
I find his every word truly offensive.
The politician's speech was offensive.
His smug behavior is offensive.
That's offensive.
This is offensive.
I find that offensive.
That's an offensive question.
She writes irrelevant posts, and offensive ones at that.

Movie subtitles

Parading an unknown dead woman on the front page is offensive.
I must say, that's a very cheerful preparation for this offensive.
I think I'm finding you a little bit offensive.
I'm sorry I was offensive.
Your wife's remarks are offensive, Mr. Kartasoff.
We have to stop offensive at once and announce to all governments.
Furthermore, I order our army to halt offensive.
It is an offensive book.
If you weren't so thoughtless, he might think you rather offensive.
At last we take the offensive.
That we are preparing an offensive.
They say this is an offensive of some size, but. it's only a rumor.
An offensive here, as usual!
Now there will be no offensive.
It might be advisable to stage an offensive for him in the morning.
The author of this little ditty that you find so offensive.
You needn't be offensive, sir.
They move up to meet our offensive.
We're careful before an offensive.
Blunderhead, that's very offensive, Lestrade.
Synthesis of the FBI's counterespionage offensive in World War II is the Christopher case which opened, as great cases often do, by accident.
All the information confirm our assumption that the enemy will assume the offensive this morning.
I realize that you have to conduct some sort of inquiry, but I must say that so far you seem to be conducting it in a rather peculiar, and offensive manner.
To hear that people come and go without my knowing it is offensive for a watchman.
A man is always on the offensive.
Enemy, offensive, strategy, mined.
A group of armies is forming on this front for an offensive very soon.
I have learned some offensive words, and when I meet any of them.
The strong raise it only to justify an offensive.
Ellen, stop making that offensive noise!
They think it's the viet's great offensive.
Gentlemen, Fantomas will use the conference in Rome to start his big offensive.
What are we to do if Napoleon takes the offensive?
The French will take the offensive.

News and current affairs

Finally, a reputation for offensive capability and a declared policy that keeps open the means of retaliation can help to reinforce deterrence.
But the US has argued that arms-control measures banning offensive capabilities could weaken defenses against attacks and would be impossible to verify or enforce.
The Syrians might be tempted to launch an offensive against Israel with the objective of breaking the deadlock over the future of the Golan Heights.
And the German team has put on a wonderful display of heart warming and modern offensive soccer (which nobody could have expected!).
Rather than learn from this fiasco, Klaus went on the offensive, claiming that he was a victim of a conspiracy hatched by Havel.
Is any form of race-related speech that anybody finds offensive to be prosecuted?
Defining the offensive racist views proscribed by the Constitution was the first challenge in the Ellwanger case, because the defense denied that anti-Semitism constitutes racism at all.
No criticism of Islam, however offensive, should ever be hampered by political correctness.
Both Moscow and Washington hint at possible deep cuts in their offensive nuclear arsenals.
ISTANBUL - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's charm offensive has stalled.
The stakes for a peaceful regional order are too high for Israel and the United States to persist in refusing to put Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's current peace offensive to the test.
As the offensive progressed, Chechen bandits largely hid in the mountains, while Russian might was turned on cities where civilians were dying.
The most important element of China's charm offensive is its effort to improve relations with Japan, initiated at a meeting between Xi and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the recent APEC meeting in Beijing.
Yet the billions of dollars China is spending on its charm offensive have had only a limited return.
Complicating matters further is the need for Park to devise a viable response to a new diplomatic charm offensive by North Korea's usually charmless leader, Kim Jong-un.
That is why Rouhani's charm offensive will not be enough to persuade Iran's adversaries that the Islamic Republic is ready to come in from the cold.
Charlie Hebdo is not the first publication to have suffered for publishing images which some perceived as offensive to Islam.
But a worldwide counter-offensive is now underway.
As it stands, the US sells mainly defensive weapons systems to India, while Russia, for example, offers India offensive weapons, including strategic bombers, an aircraft carrier, and a lease on a nuclear submarine.
While America has struggled in Iraq this year, China has spent it on a diplomatic goodwill offensive in Asia.
Dictatorship is not only safe in China, but, at least for now, it is on the offensive.
It was an important moment in China's evolution from a defensive to an offensive player on the international scene.
Responses to cyber war include a form of interstate deterrence through denial and entanglement, offensive capabilities, and designs for rapid network and infrastructure recovery if deterrence fails.

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