insulting

1. 1
   adjective

   Containing an insult, or intended to offend or belittle someone.

   The reviewer's insulting tone overshadowed any useful criticism in the piece.

   He later apologized for the insulting remark he made at dinner.

   Similaroffensive, rude, abusive, derogatory, disparaging

   Oppositecomplimentary, respectful, flattering, polite

   Note

   Here the word has become a true adjective, and its grammar shows it. It can be compared (more insulting, most insulting) and it accepts degree words, as in Jill Filipovic's "frankly insulting" of 2023. That is the quickest way to tell it from the verb form. A participle that is insulting someone needs an object, while an insulting letter or remark simply carries the offense in itself.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of insult.

   The columnist spent the entire piece insulting his rivals.

   Insulting your hosts is a poor way to end the evening.

   Note

   A verb form that always has a target. Insult is transitive, so insulting wants an object: insulting his rivals, insulting your hosts. Older English gave the verb a far rougher range, now obsolete. It could mean to assail or attack, in military use to assault without preparation, and even to leap or trample upon. Only the sense of rudeness and affront is still in use.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act of offending or belittling someone with rude words or actions.

   His public insulting of the referee earned him a lengthy suspension.

   The report documented years of insulting and intimidation aimed at local journalists.

   Similarabuse, ridicule, mockery, disparagement, belittling

   Oppositepraise, flattery

   Note

   The noun can count separate acts, with a plural insultings. Isaac Barrow writes of "scornful insultings over him in his affliction," and Thomas Smith's diary of 1689 pairs "outragings and insultings." Barrow's over preserves a construction the verb has lost: the obsolete sense of behaving in a superior manner over someone. In the singular, the noun names the activity and is followed by of, as in his insulting of the referee.

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