Compliment vs Insult - What's the difference?
compliment | insult |
An expression of praise, congratulation, encouragement, or respect.
* Milton
* Cowper
(uncountable) Complimentary language; courtesy, flattery.
*
(ambitransitive) To pay a compliment (to); to express a favorable opinion (of).
* Prior
(obsolete) To behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (over, against).
*, II.3.3:
To offend (someone) by being rude, insensitive or insolent; to demean or affront (someone).
(obsolete) To leap or trample upon; to make a sudden onset upon.
An action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude.
* Savage
* 1987 , Jamie Lee Curtis, A Fish Called Wanda :
Anything that causes offence/offense, e.g. by being of an unacceptable quality.
(medicine) Something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes.
* 2006 , Stephen G. Lomber, Jos J. Eggermont, Reprogramming the Cerebral Cortex (page 415)
* 2011 , Terence Allen and Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction , Oxford 2011, p. 96:
(obsolete) The act of leaping on; onset; attack.
Insult is a antonym of compliment.
As nouns the difference between compliment and insult
is that compliment is an expression of praise, congratulation, encouragement, or respect while insult is an action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude.As verbs the difference between compliment and insult
is that compliment is to pay a compliment (to); to express a favorable opinion (of) while insult is to behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (over, against).compliment
English
(wikipedia compliment)Etymology 1
From (etyl), from (etyl) complire, from (etyl) complereNoun
(en noun)- Tedious waste of time, to sit and hear / So many hollow compliments and lies.
- many a compliment politely penned
- This accomplished man condescended to think of a young girl, and take the pains to talk to her, not with absurd compliment , but with an appeal to her understanding, and sometimes with instructive correction.
Synonyms
* See alsoAntonyms
*insultDerived terms
* backhanded compliment * left-handed compliment * with complimentsEtymology 2
From (etyl), from (etyl) complimento'' (etyl) ''cumplimiento'', from ''cumplir'', from ''complire'', from (etyl) ''complere .Verb
(en verb)- Monarchs should their inward soul disguise; / Should compliment their foes and shun their friends.
Antonyms
*insultinsult
English
Verb
(en verb)- thou hast lost all, poor thou art, dejected, in pain of body, grief of mind, thine enemies insult over thee, thou art as bad as Job […].
- (Shakespeare)
Synonyms
* (to offend) abuse, affront, offend, slight * See alsoAntonyms
*complimentNoun
(en noun)- the ruthless sneer that insult adds to grief
- To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!
- The way the orchestra performed tonight was an insult to my ears.
- Within the complex genome of most organisms there are alternative multiple pathways of proteins which can help the individual cell survive a variety of insults , for example radiation, toxic chemicals, heat, excessive or reduced oxygen.
- (Dryden)
