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Outrageous vs Ferocious - What's the difference?

outrageous | ferocious |

As adjectives the difference between outrageous and ferocious

is that outrageous is cruel, violating morality or decency; provoking indignation or affront while ferocious is marked by extreme and violent energy.

outrageous

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Cruel, violating morality or decency; provoking indignation or affront.
  • * c. 1601 , (William Shakespeare), (Hamlet) , First Folio 1623:
  • To be, or not to be, that is the Question: / Whether 'tis Nobler in the minde to suffer / The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune, / Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them [...].
  • * 2011 , Paul Wilson, (The Guardian) , 19 Oct 2011:
  • The Irish-French rugby union whistler Alain Rolland was roundly condemned for his outrageous decision that lifting a player into the air then turning him over so he falls on his head or neck amounted to dangerous play.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.4:
  • For els my feeble vessell, crazd and crackt / Through thy strong buffets and outrageous blowes, / Cannot endure, but needes it must be wrackt [...].
  • Transgressing reasonable limits; extravagant, immoderate.
  • * 2004 , David Smith, , 19 Dec 2004:
  • Audience members praised McKellen, best known for Shakespearean roles and as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, for his show-stealing turn as Twankey in a series of outrageous glitzy dresses.
  • Shocking; exceeding conventional behaviour; provocative.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.}}
  • * 2001 , Imogen Tilden, (The Guardian) , 8 Dec 2001:
  • *:"It's something I really am quite nervous about," he admits, before adding, with relish: "You have to be a bit outrageous and challenging sometimes."
  • ferocious

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Marked by extreme and violent energy.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Tom Fordyce , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off.}}
  • Extreme or intense.
  • Synonyms

    * fierce

    Derived terms

    * ferociously