insolence

plural insolences

1. countableuncountableContemptible, ill-mannered conduct; insulting: arrogant, bold behaviour or attitude.

   all the insolence of imaginary superiority

   1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 14, in Emma: […], volume III, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   There she was, doing rude things, and saying ruder, which every body bore with the best grace in the world: then, as now, it was perfectly astonishing what people in general will submit to in the way of insolence, provided the said insolence be attended by rank and riches.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter XVIII. The Fête.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 133

   The coarseness and truth of her attack alike overwhelmed him. But her supreme insolence found him words, and he too burst forth. "Yes! and I forbid you to do it! You despise me, perhaps, and think I'm feeble. But you're mistaken. You are ungrateful, impertinent, and contemptible, but I will save you in order to save Irma and our name.

   1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread, chapter 2

   They are fond of fun and therefore witty, wit being well-bred insolence.

   c. 1908–52, W.D. Ross, transl., The Works of Aristotle, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Rhetoric, II.1389b11, by Aristotle, →OCLC, page 636

2. countableuncountableInsolent conduct or treatment; insult.

   Two heavy iron chains were put about his neck, (in metal and weight different from them he bore before!) and, loaded with fetters and insolences from the soldiers, (who in such ware seldom give scant measure,) he was brought into the presence of Isaacius.

   1652, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, and the Profane State, page 442

3. countableobsoleteuncountableThe quality of being unusual or novel.

   Her great excellence / Lifts me above the measure of my might / That being fild with furious insolence / I feele my selfe like one yrapt in spright.

   1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “Colin Clouts Come Home Againe”, in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

present singular third person insolences · participle present insolencing · participle past insolenced · past insolenced

1. obsoleteTo insult.

   bishops, who were first foully insolenced and assaulted.

   1648, attributed to Charles I of England, Εἰκὼν Βασιλική [Eikōn Basilikē = Royal Portrait]. The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Maiestie, in His Solitvdes and Svfferings

   1 more example

   ...we are bound to assert that we never heard either in his public discourses or private conversation, anything that might tend towards encouraging sedition, or anyways insolencing the government

   1851, Church Wardens of Burlington, “The Church Wardens &c. of Burlington to the Honourable Society. Burlington, 28th, 1715”, in Collections of the Protestant Episcopal Historical Society, volume 1, →OCLC, page 76