offensive

comparative more offensive · superlative most offensive · alternative obsolete offencive

1. Causing offense; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, hatred, sadness, or indignation.

   An offensive smell.

   3 more examples

   Some people find pornography offensive.

   A survey at Yale University had 63% of students wanting professors to issue “trigger warnings” before saying anything that some might find offensive or could cause painful emotions.

   2016 September 12, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Political Incorrectness Is Just a Strategy”, in Time, archived from the original on 10 Oct 2023

   Britain’s police are especially zealous. Officers spend thousands of hours sifting through potentially offensive posts and arrest 30 people a day. Among those collared were a man who ranted about immigration on Facebook and a couple who criticised their daughter’s primary school.

   2025 May 15, “Europe’s free-speech problem”, in The Economist

   Antonyms: inoffensive

   1. broadlySocially disrespectful; insensitive.

      Antonyms: inoffensive

2. Relating to an offense or attack, as opposed to defensive.

   The army's offensive capabilities. An offensive weapon.

   1 more example

   In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.

   2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6

   Antonyms: defensive

3. hobbiesHaving to do with play directed at scoring.

   The offensive coordinator is responsible for ordering all rushing plays.

plural offensives · alternative obsolete offencive

1. countablegovernmentAn attack.

   The Marines today launched a major offensive.

   3 more examples

   In Central Hupeh, the Japanese launched another offensive from the Kingshan region, but instead of moving southwestward to cooperate with another column of theirs to capture Shasi, this column swerved to the northwest and succeeded in capturing Chunghsiang on the Han River.

   1939 January, Lin Yu, “The "China Incident"”, in Philippine Magazine, volume XXXVI, number 1, →OCLC, page 121

   By the summer of 1939, a stringent military blockade had been imposed on the Shen-Kan-Ning. In the winter of 1939–1940, the Nationalists launched an offensive against the outskirts of the Border Region. Thereafter, blockhouses were erected, 200,000 KMT troops were stationed around the Shen-Kan-Ning, and all economic aid to the Communists was suspended.

   1971, Kenneth E. Shewmaker, “Closing the Door: 1939”, in Americans and Chinese Communists, 1927–1945: A Persuading Encounter, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 111

   Israel has launched a major aerial and ground offensive into the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, its biggest military operation in the Palestinian territory in years, in what it described as an “extensive counter-terrorism effort”.

   2023 July 3, Bethan McKernan, Peter Beaumont, “Israel attacks Jenin in biggest West Bank incursion in 20 years”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

2. uncountableThe posture of attacking or being able to attack.

   He took the offensive in the press, accusing his opponent of corruption.