outrage
Americannoun
-
outrages
plural
-
an act of wanton cruelty or violence; any gross violation of law or decency.
-
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)
-
outrages,
present (3rd person singular)
-
outraged,
past participle, past
-
outraging
present participle
-
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
-
a wantonly vicious or cruel act
-
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
-
to offend grossly (feelings, decency, human dignity, etc)
-
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
-
outragessimple
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
100 SAT words Beginning with "O"
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Unit 2: Pivotal Words and Phrases
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Around the time the outrage reached a fever pitch, however, the completion date was announced.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
Others took to social media expressing their outrage and demanding justice with one user saying: "Enough is enough."
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
But I’d argue that Fennell intends to galvanize thought and action, not outrage.
From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026
The ensuing protests were violent and costly and worried many of us, not because we agreed with Mr. Yiannopoulos, but because outrage over ideas had turned students against each another.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
Charlie shared my outrage but soon fell back asleep.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
Then came the daily announcements and receipts documenting scandalous spending outrages, not all of which lived up to their original billing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 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
The full list of outrages is too long to list here, and I assume that most informed readers know about most of them.
From Salon ● Mar. 28, 2025
These, detached in our minds from all the rest, we take to be unnatural events, anomalies, outrages.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
To the media and to outraged internet commentators, it didn’t matter that two-thirds of Latino men had responded that each of those three issues was “very important” or “somewhat important.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
When Peters was sentenced, Trump declared himself outraged.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
Initially outraged, union leaders eventually agreed to capacity and workforce cuts in exchange for a fresh jobs guarantee for the survivors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
It’s common for lawmakers and advocacy groups to fire off outraged letters about a company’s alleged wrongdoing.
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2026
And it had the charm of never knowing the entrance of an outraged landlord.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
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
The court also rejected calls for Husain, then in exile, to be summoned and asked to explain his paintings, which were accused of outraging religious sentiments and disturbing national integrity.
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2025
Russia enacted a similar law that year, outraging women’s rights advocates.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
You have much greater cause to keep your room and cry over your misdemeanours, than come here outraging all decency in this way.
From A Practical Novelist by John Davidson
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.
