Affront
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An open or intentional offense, slight, or insult.
"Such behavior is an affront to society."
- 2 a deliberately offensive act or something producing the effect of deliberate disrespect wordnet
- 3 A hostile encounter or meeting. obsolete
- 1 To insult intentionally, especially openly. transitive
"But beſides, that ſuch a thought was inconſiſtent with the gravity of a Senate, how can one imagine that the Fathers would have dared affront the Wife of Aurelius, and the Mother of Commodus, or that they could think of giving offence to an Empreſs whom they afterwards Defied, and to an Emperor that was the darling of the army and people?"
- 2 treat, mention, or speak to rudely wordnet
- 3 To meet defiantly; to confront. transitive
"to affront death"
- 4 To meet or encounter face to face. obsolete, transitive
"Many Iſlands there lie all over that ſea : but one above the reſt, and moſt renowned, is Tazata : for thither all the ſhipping from out of the Caſpian ſea and the Scythian Ocean, doe bend their courſe and there arrive : for that all the ſea coaſts doe affront the Levant, and turne into the Eaſt."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Those who threatened the religious order were severely punished. The reason for this is, of course, obvious. The religious authorities gave the monarch divine right, and an affront to the religious establishment was a threat to the monarch's power."
Etymology
From Middle English afrounten, from Old French afronter (“to defy”), from Vulgar Latin *affrontare (“to hit in the face”), from Latin ad (“to”) + frōns (“forehead”) (English front).
More for "affront"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.