insultverb/ɪnˈsʌlt/

• 1

  To be insensitive, insolent, or rude to (somebody); to affront or demean (someone).

  • - Marvel owns your gods! - Insulting is not arguing.
  • And why I pray you? who might be your mother That you inſult, exult, and all at once Ouer the wretched?
• 2

  obsoleteTo assail, assault, or attack; (specifically, military) to carry out an assault, attack, or onset without preparation.

  • Giue me thy knife, I will inſult on him, Flattering my ſelfes, as if it were the Moore, Come hither purpoſely to poyſon me.
  • Not with more madneſs, rolling from afar, / The ſpumy Waves proclaim the watry War. / And mounting upwards, with a mighty Roar, / March onwards, and inſult the rocky ſhoar.
• 3

  obsoleteTo behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (against or over someone).

  • And doe you ſe how he inſulteth ouer me, as though hee had gotten a great aduantage, and how hee taketh heere his reuenge vpon me, for the ſhipwracke hee ſuffered before, in the matter of his ſyllogyſme?
  • Now with the drops of this moſt balmie time, / My loue lookes freſh, and death to me ſubſcribes, / Since ſpight of him Ile liue in this poore time / While he inſults ore dull and ſpeachleſſe tribes.
• 4

  obsoleterareTo leap or trample upon.

  • So looks the pent-vp Lyon o're the Wretch, / That trembles vnder his deuouring Pawes: / And ſo he walkes, inſulting o're his Prey, / And ſo he comes, to rend his Limbes aſunder.

insultnoun/ˈɪnsʌlt/

• 1

  Action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude; (countable) a particular act or statement having this effect.

  • Preſent we meet thy ſneaking treacherous ſmiles; The harmleſs abſent ſtill thy ſneer reviles; Such as in thee all parts ſuperior find, The ſneer that marks the fool and knave combin'd; When melting pity would afford relief The ruthleſs ſneer that insult adds to grief.
  • [...] I will, however, enjoin you / Never to submit tamely to insults from any one! for, although I strongly urge you to show every possible respect and deference to all who are your superiors, as indeed due to them, I wish you to remember that, should they return you insults for such consistent conduct, it will be manly in you, after having given them a chance, by your calm and dignified remonstrance, to repair the injury, to resent the (by such an omission) enlarged offence, for thereupon no one can blame you if you firmly persevere in your efforts to obtain reparation.
• 2

  Something that causes offence (for example, by being of an unacceptable quality).

  • The way the orchestra performed tonight was an insult to my ears.
  • Such marriages he had held were insults to the manhood of any man and the womanhood of any woman. In such unions neither party could respect himself or his companion.
• 3

  medicinesciencesSomething causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes; the injury so caused.

  • The exact nature of the teratological insult in diabetic pregnancy, and the cell biological details of the induced disturbances, are not known.
  • [M]ost investigators agreed with the characterization of early brain plasticity as a transiently available, ancillary system that is triggered by neural insult, and that serves, most importantly, as a means of shielding the developing organism from the potentially debilitating effects of neural insult.
• 4

  archaicAn assault or attack; (specifically, military, obsolete) an assault, attack, or onset carried out without preparation.

  • Then fir'd with pious Rage, the gen'rous Train / Run madly forward, to revenge the ſlain. / And ſome with eager haſte their Jav'lins throw; / And ſome, with Sword in hand, aſſault the Foe. / The wiſh'd Inſult the Latine Troops embrace; / And meet their Ardour in the middle Space.
  • The government was continually expoſed to the inſults of a faction, and deſtitute of the neceſſary reſources.
• 5

  obsoleteAn act of leaping upon.

  • The Bull's Inſult at Four ſhe [the mother cow] may ſuſtain; / But, after Ten, from Nuptial Rites refrain. / Six Seaſons uſe; but then releaſe the Cow, / Unfit for Love, and for the lab'ring Plough.