Insult vs Accuse - What's the difference?
insult | accuse |
(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.
To find fault with, to blame, to censure.
* (rfdate) (Epistle to the Romans) 2:15,
* (rfdate) ,
To charge with having committed a crime or offence.
* (rfdate) (Acts of the Apostles) 24:13,
To make an accusation against someone.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
, title=
In transitive terms the difference between insult and accuse
is that insult is to offend (someone) by being rude, insensitive or insolent; to demean or affront (someone) while accuse is to charge with having committed a crime or offence.In obsolete terms the difference between insult and accuse
is that insult is the act of leaping on; onset; attack while accuse is an accusation.As verbs the difference between insult and accuse
is that insult is to behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (over, against) while accuse is to find fault with, to blame, to censure.As nouns the difference between insult and accuse
is that insult is an action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude while accuse is an accusation.insult
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)
Synonyms
* (deliberatedly intended to be rude) abuse (uncountable), affront, offence (UK)/offense (US), pejorative, slam, slight, slur * (thing causing offence by being of unacceptable quality) disgrace, outrage * See alsoAntonyms
*complimentAnagrams
* * English heteronymsaccuse
English
(Webster 1913)Verb
(accus)- Their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.
- We are accused of having persuaded Austria and Sardinia to lay down their arms.
- Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.
Obama goes troll-hunting, passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}