Crossword Dictionary
OFFEND
offend, offends, offended, offending - v
to commit an offense
Synonyms
aggrieve, anger, annoy, antagonize, disgust, disturb, exasperate, gall, horrify, hurt, irritate, outrage, provoke, rile, shock, sicken, sting, upset, affront, disgruntle, disoblige, distress, fret, jar, miff, nauseate, nettle, pain, pique, repel, repulse, sin, slight, slur, snub, transgress, trespass, vex, wound
Examples
Katie tried to suppress it, not wanting to offend her friend, but it escaped.
Over the members of these orders their superiors have jurisdiction and not the bishop. Otherwise if they live out of their monastery, or even within that enclosure so notoriously offend as to cause scandal.
Night is a person in Greek mythology, and in the fourteenth book of the Iliad we read that Zeus abstained from punishing Sleep " because he feared to offend swift Night."
Etymology
early 14c., offenden, "to disobey or sin against (a person, human or divine)," a sense now obsolete, from Old French ofendre "hit, attack, injure; sin against; antagonize, excite to anger" and directly from Latin offendere "to hit, thrust, or strike against," figuratively "to stumble, commit a fault, displease, trespass against, provoke," from assimilated form of ob "in front of against" (see ob-) + -fendere "to strike" (found only in compounds; see defend).