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.
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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
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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
-
has outragedperfect
-
am outragingprogressive
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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
Last month, Magyar offered the nomination as president to chess legend Judit Polgar, but she declined after the prime minister faced mounting outrage for not consulting the public as promised.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 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
And all the pity and outrage she’d felt on behalf of Minya’s bound ghosts deserted her.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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
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
Annoyed by the outrages of the regular army, General José Raquel Moncada used his political influence, put on his uniform again, and assumed the civil and military leadership of Macondo.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
They were outraged about the lack of government accountability surrounding the closure of the Exide battery recycling plant in nearby Vernon that had contaminated thousands of homes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
She says she was "completely outraged" at the spillage and the speed of the subsequent clean-up.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 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
It is a curious, peaceful sort of revolution, in which there is no general apprehension that old views are being outraged and overturned.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
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
However, after he was later picked out of a police line up the odds were stacked against him, and, on 28 March 2023, he was found guilty at Barnsley Magistrates' Court of outraging public decency.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2024
Russia enacted a similar law that year, outraging women’s rights advocates.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
He, like Baudelaire, Flaubert, and De Maupassant, was summoned before the bar of justice for outraging public morals by the publication of his play, The Box of Pandora, the sequel to Erdgeist.
From Ivory Apes and Peacocks by James Huneker
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.
