outrage
Americannoun
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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.
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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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to subject to grievous violence or indignity.
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to anger or offend; make resentful; shock.
I am outraged by his whole attitude.
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to offend against (right, decency, feelings, etc.) grossly or shamelessly.
Such conduct outrages our normal sense of decency.
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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
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profound indignation, anger, or hurt, caused by such an act
verb
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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
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a euphemistic word for rape 1
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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outragesimple
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outragessimple
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have outragedperfect
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has outragedperfect
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am outragingprogressive
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are outragingprogressive
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is outragingprogressive
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have been outragingperfect progressive
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has been outragingperfect progressive
Past
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outragedsimple
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had outragedperfect
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was outragingprogressive
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were outragingprogressive
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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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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:
A transgender actor playing a Greek soldier who tricks the Trojans into thinking the wooden horse is really a gift has sparked outrage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Videos showing police dragging Gandhi away sparked widespread outrage.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
The transition plan for Morales has drawn outrage from faculty leadership groups.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
What began as online outrage over exam scandals has snowballed into protests against India's education system, posing one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his third term in office.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
The man sputtered in shock and outrage, and Pinmei could only stare back.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
This editorial is hard to read, but unless we want to experience similar terror-driven antisemitic outrages in the future, the truth must be told and retold to and by people of good will.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
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
But like other social media outrages, it has faded.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2024
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
“We are deeply saddened and outraged by this act, but we refuse to let it define our community.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
Ashley Baxter said he was "baffled, disappointed and outraged" by the situation and said his council would explore ways of overturning the decision.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
But in her outraged response, Stuckey became most emotional over an aside in which I mocked her for denying that dinosaurs existed millions of years before humans.
From Salon ● Jul. 10, 2026
Héctor Méndez, a veteran of Mexico’s Topos Azteca International Rescue Brigade, was outraged when a state news reporter asked him to offer kind words to Rodríguez.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
He was convinced that Hagrid had found a way of smuggling the hippogriff to safety, and seemed outraged that he and his father had been outwitted by a gamekeeper.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
A month later, he posted on X: “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” outraging many of his anti-vaccine supporters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
In the months since, he has expanded the deployments of troops to US cities, outraging critics.
From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2025
Ex-Barnsley striker Shaun Tuton was dropped by Whitby Town after he was found guilty of outraging public decency, with details of the case reported in the national press.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2024
Russia enacted a similar law that year, outraging women’s rights advocates.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
It might be so, but the cause of public order does not gain in the end by outraging that law of natural justice on respect for which public order must ultimately depend.
From Irish History and the Irish Question by Smith, Goldwin
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.
