DictionaryAI

outrage

OWT-rayj/ˈaʊt.ɹeɪd͡ʒ/

Pluraloutrages (some meanings)

Verboutrages, outraging, outraged

8 meanings of outrage

Practice

  1. 1
    noununcountable
    The resentful, indignant, or shocked anger aroused by offensive or shocking acts.

    Public outrage grew after the company dumped waste into the river.

    There was widespread outrage among readers when the verdict was announced.

    Similaranger, indignation, fury, rage, outcry

  2. 2
    verbtransitive
    To provoke feelings of shocked anger and resentment in someone.

    The decision to cut pensions outraged thousands of workers.

    Cruelty like that would outrage anyone with a conscience.

    Similaranger, infuriate, enrage, incense, appall

    Oppositeplease, delight

  3. 3
    nouncountable
    An act that is offensive, immoral, or indecent.

    Treating prisoners that way was condemned as a moral outrage.

    Publishing the stolen photos was a gross outrage against her privacy.

    Similardisgrace, scandal, affront, insult, offense

  4. 4
    nouncountable
    An act of extreme, savage violence; an atrocity.

    The bombing of the crowded market was condemned worldwide as an outrage.

    Soldiers committed terrible outrages against the villagers during the retreat.

    Similaratrocity, barbarity, crime, enormity

    Note

    The word's history runs through excess, not anger: Old French outrage meant "excess," from Latin ultrā, "beyond." Speakers later heard it as out- plus rage, which shaped today's pronunciation, though neither part is actually related. Here the excess is violence. Baroness Orczy calls a stabbing a "daring outrage," and the noun counts readily: soldiers commit outrages against civilians.

  5. 5
    verbtransitive
    To commit a violent or abusive act against someone or something; to treat brutally.

    The mob outraged the sanctuary, tearing down its altars.

    Invaders who outrage holy places earn lasting hatred.

    Similardesecrate, violate, defile, ravage, abuse

    Note

    The object of this verb can be a standard as well as a person. In Francis Atterbury's funeral sermon of 1706, base minds "outrage men" when they expect no return. In William Broome's Odyssey, an interview "outrages all the rules of decency." That second pattern, with outrage applied to decency or rules, sits close to the sense of provoking anger.

Less common meanings

  1. 6
    verbarchaictransitive
    To sexually violate a person; to rape.

    The invading soldiers outraged the women of the captured town.

    Men who outrage the helpless were once hanged for it.

    Note

    An older, indirect way of naming rape, now archaic. In older narratives it can look like the anger verb, so context decides: a person as the object, in a scene of conquest or assault, points to this meaning. In modern writing, use rape or sexual assault, which leave no room for misreading.

  2. 7
    nounobsoletecountable
    A spell of destructive, rampaging violence.
    Note

    Modern readers easily misread this sense because the anger meaning now dominates. In 1648 the Journals of the House of Lords give thanks for preventing "so horrid an Outrage" that might have spoiled the whole City of London. They mean a violent outbreak, not public fury. Read it as "rampage" in older texts, but do not use it this way today.

  3. 8
    verbobsoletetransitive
    To exceed or surpass something in raging fury.
    Their will the tiger sucked, outraged the storm
    1742, [Edward Young], The Complaint
    Note

    Here the word is taken literally as out- plus rage, on the pattern of outrun or outshine: to rage more fiercely than something else. Edward Young's Night-Thoughts has a fury that "outraged the storm." It is the mistaken out-plus-rage reading of the atrocity noun turned into a working verb, and it is now obsolete.

Practice

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Origin

It comes from Middle English "outrage," from Old French "outrage" or "oultrage" ("excess"), from Vulgar Latin *ultrāticum ("a going beyond"), which derives from Latin "ultrā" ("beyond"). It was later reanalysed as "out-" + "rage," giving the modern pronunciation, though neither part is actually etymologically related. The verb comes from Middle English "outragen," from Old French "oultragier."