outrage
Americannoun
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outrages
plural
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an act of wanton cruelty or violence; any gross violation of law or decency.
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anything that strongly offends, insults, or affronts the feelings.
-
a powerful feeling of resentment or anger aroused by something perceived as an injury, insult, or injustice.
Outrage seized the entire nation at the news of the attempted assassination.
verb (used with object)
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outrages,
present (3rd person singular)
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outraged,
past participle, past
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outraging
present participle
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to subject to grievous violence or indignity.
-
to anger or offend; make resentful; shock.
I am outraged by his whole attitude.
-
to offend against (right, decency, feelings, etc.) grossly or shamelessly.
Such conduct outrages our normal sense of decency.
-
to rape.
- Synonyms:
- violate
noun
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a wantonly vicious or cruel act
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a gross violation of decency, morality, honour, etc
-
profound indignation, anger, or hurt, caused by such an act
verb
-
to cause profound indignation, anger, or resentment in
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to offend grossly (feelings, decency, human dignity, etc)
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to commit an act of wanton viciousness, cruelty, or indecency on
-
a euphemistic word for rape 1
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
outragesimple
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outragessimple
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have outragedperfect
-
has outragedperfect
-
am outragingprogressive
-
are outragingprogressive
-
is outragingprogressive
-
have been outragingperfect progressive
-
has been outragingperfect progressive
Past
-
outragedsimple
-
had outragedperfect
-
was outragingprogressive
-
were outragingprogressive
-
had been outragingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of outrage
1250–1300; Middle English < Old French outrage, ultrage, equivalent to outr ( er ) to push beyond bounds (derivative of outre beyond < Latin ultrā ) + -age -age
Explanation
If you consider how people are treated in airports an outrage, you get really angry over airport security or the price of airport food. Six dollars for a piece of pizza? What an outrage! Something is an outrage when it is shocking and makes you angry. Stealing from an orphanage? That's an outrage. Sometimes outrage leads to action. Public outrage over the latest political scandal often makes the news.
Vocabulary lists containing outrage
NAEP Test Words
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100 SAT words Beginning with "O"
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Unit 2: Pivotal Words and Phrases
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Characterizing the outrage that followed as a strategic error feels a little mercenary.
From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026
Fans of the opposing Golden State Valkyries cheered Carrington’s return to Chase Center after the outrage over her Aug. 8 flagrant foul against Cunningham.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
The comments prompted some outrage on social media in Japan, where Takaichi became the country's first woman prime minister last year.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
The case sparked community outrage and was among several cases which prompted the state of Queensland to controversially introduce stricter youth crime laws.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Penelope heard of the outrage and declared that she would herself speak with the ill-treated man, but she decided first to pay a visit to the banqueting hall.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
But it’s just as much about journalistic malpractice, ethical outrages and the besmearing of reputations on the flimsiest of evidence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 31, 2025
It reveals an American elite blinded to outrages occurring in plain view, due to the clubby nature of high society.
From Slate ● Nov. 20, 2025
In an interview with historian Brian Harrison in the 1970s, Jessie recalled the so-called "pillar box outrages" were planned "with military precision."
From BBC ● Apr. 6, 2025
Will an overall fatigue with the outrages associated with ‘Emilia Pérez’ sink its chances of taking home the best picture Oscar?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2025
It was then that he decided to review the titles to land that went back a hundred years and he discovered the legalized outrages of his brother, José Arcadio.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Federico Basile, the mayor of Messina, said he was "deeply outraged" by the "heinous criminal act".
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
To win, El-Sayed is counting on mobilizing a progressive base, outraged by Trump's second term, and targeting bread-and-butter issues of importance across the political divide.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
Senior officials who had overseen the subpoenas’ issuance acknowledged to an outraged Judge Arun Subramanian that the subpoenas were riddled with errors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Varela was so outraged by the comment he decided to post the video on Reddit in an effort to seek accountability.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The destruction of Prophet’s Town outraged Indigenous peoples all over the Ohio Country.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
In the months since, he has expanded the deployments of troops to US cities, outraging critics.
From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2025
Russia enacted a similar law that year, outraging women’s rights advocates.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
Two men, aged 31 and 27, are being held on suspicion of outraging public decency at Sunderland's away match to Sheffield Wednesday.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2023
A controlled burn in Calaveras Big Trees State Park has badly damaged a pair of giant sequoias named ‘the Orphans,’ outraging community members.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2023
There were faithless husbands, outraging all decency by proclaiming their bad conduct; there were as faithless wives, parading about in all the effrontery of wickedness.
From Arthur O'Leary His Wanderings And Ponderings In Many Lands by Charles James Lever
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
