Library / English Dictionary

OUTRAGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A wantonly cruel act

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("outrage" is a kind of...):

atrocity; inhumanity (an act of atrocious cruelty)

Derivation:

outrage (force (someone) to have sex against their will)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of scandalizing

Synonyms:

outrage; scandalisation; scandalization

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("outrage" is a kind of...):

affront; insult (a deliberately offensive act or something producing the effect of deliberate disrespect)

Derivation:

outrage (strike with disgust or revulsion)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A disgraceful event

Synonyms:

outrage; scandal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("outrage" is a kind of...):

trouble (an event causing distress or pain)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "outrage"):

skeleton; skeleton in the closet; skeleton in the cupboard (a scandal that is kept secret)

Instance hyponyms:

Teapot Dome; Teapot Dome scandal (a government scandal involving a former United States Navy oil reserve in Wyoming that was secretly leased to a private oil company in 1921; became symbolic of the scandals of the Harding administration)

Watergate; Watergate scandal (a political scandal involving abuse of power and bribery and obstruction of justice; led to the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974)

Derivation:

outrage (strike with disgust or revulsion)

outrageous (grossly offensive to decency or morality; causing horror)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A feeling of righteous anger

Synonyms:

indignation; outrage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("outrage" is a kind of...):

anger; choler; ire (a strong emotion; a feeling that is oriented toward some real or supposed grievance)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "outrage"):

dudgeon; high dudgeon (a feeling of intense indignation (now used only in the phrase 'in high dudgeon'))

Derivation:

outrage (strike with disgust or revulsion)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Strike with disgust or revulsion

Example:

The scandalous behavior of this married woman shocked her friends

Synonyms:

appal; appall; offend; outrage; scandalise; scandalize; shock

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "outrage" is one way to...):

churn up; disgust; nauseate; revolt; sicken (cause aversion in; offend the moral sense of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence examples:

The bad news will outrage him

The performance is likely to outrage Sue

Derivation:

outrage (the act of scandalizing)

outrage (a disgraceful event)

outrage (a feeling of righteous anger)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Force (someone) to have sex against their will

Example:

The woman was raped on her way home at night

Synonyms:

assault; dishonor; dishonour; outrage; rape; ravish; violate

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "outrage" is one way to...):

assail; assault; attack; set on (attack someone physically or emotionally)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "outrage"):

gang-rape (rape (someone) successively with several attackers)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

outrage (a wantonly cruel act)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Violate the sacred character of a place or language

Example:

profane the name of God

Synonyms:

desecrate; outrage; profane; violate

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "outrage" is one way to...):

assail; assault; attack; set on (attack someone physically or emotionally)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

It was all very silly, he knew; but therefore the more outrage to his dignity, and his anger waxed and waxed.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Hence the fierce mutterings of the lower classes and the constant discontent, breaking out into local tumult and outrage, and culminating some years later in the great rising of Tyler.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The police are of opinion that this outrage may have been perpetrated upon Miss Cushing by these youths, who owed her a grudge and who hoped to frighten her by sending her these relics of the dissecting-rooms.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So perfect was the organisation of the society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the perpetrators.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her form, though not so correct as her sister's, in having the advantage of height, was more striking; and her face was so lovely, that when in the common cant of praise, she was called a beautiful girl, truth was less violently outraged than usually happens.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

She was hurt and outraged by what had taken place, and yet she lay in his arms and quivered while he went on muttering, "The beasts! The beasts!"

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

If I tear, if I rend the slight prison, my outrage will only let the captive loose.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But it is equally true that he then withdrew, leaving the gang to receive the punishment of the outraged gods.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Yesterday I was almost willing to accept Van Helsing's monstrous ideas; but now they seem to start out lurid before me as outrages on common sense.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The generous nature of Safie was outraged by this command; she attempted to expostulate with her father, but he left her angrily, reiterating his tyrannical mandate.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)