affront

Word family

af·front1 /əˈfrʌnt/ verb [transitiveT] formal

OFFENDto offend or insult someone, especially by not showing respect 侮辱；冒犯

be affronted by something

He stepped back, affronted by the question.

他觉得这个问题语带冒犯，退后了几步。

Examples from the Corpus

affront• Any breach of individual liberties affronts and incenses us.• His brother Austen, affronted by the lack of respect paid to his seniority, reluctantly accepted the Admiralty outside the Cabinet.• He hated it, kicked it when it affronted him.• Buying an airline seemed foolhardy and unnecessarily ostentatious: it affronted his sense of proportion.• And what affronts the system most of all is the idea that the state could help to support women's independence.

affront2 noun [countableC usually singular]

INSULTa remark or action that offends or insults someone 侮辱；冒犯

affront to

The comments were an affront to his pride.

那些话伤害了他的自尊。

Examples from the Corpus

affront• When self-regard is so shatteringly undermined, the symbols of a former shaky greatness become almost an affront.• Nonconformists saw slavery as an affront to their religion; utilitarians dismissed it as inefficient.• By contrast, bureaucrats tend to regard advice from superiors as an affront and are not shy about saying so.• This is both an affront and a challenge.• Only boys like the ones at Ferguson could carry off such an affront.• She felt that his behaviour was an affront to her dignity as a human being.• But the Lower East Side was merely squalid-an intolerable affront to respectable folk.• That had been the coldest of affronts to her family and even to her own heart.• Though I only intended it as a joke, he took it as a personal affront.• The two are said to have been turned into lions because of some affront offered either to Zeus or to Aphrodite.• Lucy was so shocked by these affronts that she remained speechless for the rest of the evening.

Origin affront1