outrages

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of outrage.

   Investigators cataloged a long string of outrages committed during the occupation.

   The committee condemned the latest outrages against unarmed civilians.

   Note

   The plural counts deeds: outrages are atrocities or offensive acts, the kind that are committed, catalogued and condemned one after another. The anger such acts arouse more naturally stays singular, so people feel outrage at the outrages. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb. Only the surrounding words tell "the outrages" from "it outrages".

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of outrage.

   The company's quiet decision to cut pensions outrages its longtime employees.

   Every fresh report of corruption outrages the voters who put them in office.

   Note

   The verb is always transitive: something outrages someone, so this form needs a direct object after it, such as the employees or the voters. In everyday use it means to provoke indignant anger, or to treat with violence or abuse. Its sense of sexual violation is archaic, so modern writing rarely intends that meaning. Its sense of raging beyond something is obsolete.

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