Meanings
- obsoleteAssault; attack, offensive; offense.
… they nourish wicked adultery and much fornication, they fill the world with offensions and bastards, and give great occasion of murdering …
c. 1517–1587, John Foxe, "The Primitive Church of Rome", reprinted in The Acts and Monuments … with a preliminary diss. by George Townsend (1841), page 841 more example
Napoleon had possessed himself of those very points, which would serve him as a basis of offension against Prussia and Austria. Nicholas acted in his spirit, when he fortified those points by a chain of fortresses.
a. 1955, Karl Marx (original author), Manuskripte über die polnische Frage: (1863–1864), Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG (2020), page 183
Origin
- Latinoffensio“an offense”
- Old French[Term?]
- Englishoffension
From Old French [Term?], from Latin offensio (“an offense”).
More words from Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
offension. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/offension
“offension.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/offension. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “offension,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/offension.
Source: offension on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.