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Offend vs Belittle - What's the difference?

offend | belittle |

As verbs the difference between offend and belittle

is that offend is (transitive)  to hurt the feelings of; to displease; to make angry; to insult while belittle is to knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is.

offend

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • (transitive)  To hurt the feelings of; to displease; to make angry; to insult.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. We nearly crowned her we were so offended . She saw us but she didn't know us, did she?’.}}
  • (intransitive)  To feel or become offended, take insult.
  • (transitive)  To physically harm, pain.
  • (transitive)  To annoy, cause discomfort or resent.
  • (intransitive)  To sin, transgress divine law or moral rules.
  • (transitive)  To transgress or violate a law or moral requirement.
  • (obsolete, transitive, archaic, biblical)  To cause to stumble; to cause to sin or to fall.
  • * 1896 , Adolphus Frederick Schauffler, Select Notes on the International Sunday School Lessons , W. A. Wilde company, Page 161,
  • "If any man offend not (stumbles not, is not tripped up) in word, the same is a perfect man."
  • * New Testament'', Matthew 5:29 (''Sermon on the Mount ),
  • "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out."

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * offendedly * offendedness * offender * reoffend

    belittle

    English

    Verb

    (belittl)
  • To knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006
  • , author=Mark Steyn , title=America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It , chapter=9 , isbn=0895260786 , page=201 , passage=Under the rules as understood by the New York Times'', the West is free to mock and belittle''' its Judeo-Christian inheritance, and, likewise, the Muslim world is free to mock and ' belittle the West's Judeo-Christian inheritance.}}

    See also

    * disparage * denigrate * vilipend