INSOLENT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Insolent

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/ˈɪnsələnt/ Listen

adjective

Insolent adj.

1.

Deviating from that which is customary; novel; strange; unusual. (Obs.) "If one chance to derive any word from the Latin which is insolent to their ears... they forthwith make a jest at it." "If any should accuse me of being new or insolent."

2.

Haughty and contemptuous or brutal in behavior or language; overbearing; domineering; grossly rude or disrespectful; saucy; as, an insolent master; an insolent servant. "A paltry, insolent fellow." "Insolent is he that despiseth in his judgment all other folks as in regard of his value, of his cunning, of his speaking, and of his bearing." "Can you not see? or will ye not observe... How insolent of late he is become, How proud, how peremptory?"

3.

Proceeding from or characterized by insolence; insulting; as, insolent words or behavior. "Their insolent triumph excited... indignation."

Synonyms: Overbearing; insulting; abusive; offensive; saucy; impudent; audacious; pert; impertinent; rude; reproachful; opprobrious. Insolent, Insulting. Insolent, in its primitive sense, simply denoted unusual; and to act insolently was to act in violation of the established rules of social intercourse. He who did this was insolent; and thus the word became one of the most offensive in our language, indicating gross disregard for the feelings of others. Insulting denotes a personal attack, either in words or actions, indicative either of scorn or triumph. Compare Impertinent, Affront, Impudence.

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Etymology of 'Insolent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Insolent" Quotes from Famous Books

... and delighting more sometimes at finding its table spread in strange places, and in the presence of its enemies, and its honey coming out of the rock, than if all were harmonized into a less wondrous pleasure; hating only what is self-sighted and insolent of men's work, despising all that is not of God, unless reminding it of God, yet able to find evidence of him still, where all seems forgetful of him, and to turn that into a witness of his working which was meant to obscure it, and ...

— Modern Painters Volume II (of V) • John Ruskin

... was in such a rage that before he could speak he had time to cool, and to reflect that it would be great waste to kill the only man who was willing to be useful in the present emergency, seeing that in the end the insolent fellow would be as dead as if he had died by his majesty's own hand. "Oh!" said he at last, putting up his sword with difficulty, it was so long; "I am obliged to you, you young fool! Take ...

— The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories • George MacDonald

... like the heaven-born lightnings. At his side Stood, all his form divine in darkness cloaked, Ares the terrible, and winged the flight Of what bare down to the Argives doom or dread. He fought as when Olympian Zeus himself From heaven in wrath smote down the insolent bands Of giants grim, and shook the boundless earth, And sea, and ocean, and the heavens, when reeled The knees of Atlas neath the rush of Zeus. So crumbled down beneath Aeneas' bolts The Argive squadrons. All along the wall Wroth with the foeman ...

— The Fall of Troy • Smyrnaeus Quintus

... twice as they flashed by a street-lamp they were recognized as British officers, and then natives, who would have gone to some trouble to seem insolent a few hours before, stopped to half-turn and salaam ...

— Winds of the World • Talbot Mundy

... thousand feet below; happy children are nestling there in innocent sleep. Jovial voices are chatting round the fire. What has he to do with youth, and health, and joy? Lower, lower, ye clouds!—Shut out that insolent and intruding spark, till nothing be seen but the silver sheet of Cwm Fynnon, and the silver zig-zag lines which wander into it among black morass, while down the mountain side go, softly sliding, troops of ...

— Two Years Ago, Volume II. • Charles Kingsley

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