transgress
Americanverb (used without object)
-
transgresses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
transgressed,
past participle, past
-
transgressing
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
transgresses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
transgressed,
past participle, past
-
transgressing
present participle
-
to pass over or go beyond (a limit, boundary, etc.).
to transgress bounds of prudence.
-
to go beyond the limits imposed by (a law, command, etc.); violate; infringe.
to transgress the will of God.
- Synonyms:
- disobey, contravene
- Antonyms:
- obey
verb
-
to break (a law, rule, etc)
-
to go beyond or overstep (a limit)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
transgressornoun
-
nontransgressiveadjective
-
transgressiveadjective
-
untransgressedadjective
-
nontransgressivelyadverb
-
transgressivelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
transgresssimple
-
transgressessimple
-
have transgressedperfect
-
has transgressedperfect
-
am transgressingprogressive
-
are transgressingprogressive
-
is transgressingprogressive
-
have been transgressingperfect progressive
-
has been transgressingperfect progressive
Past
-
transgressedsimple
-
had transgressedperfect
-
was transgressingprogressive
-
were transgressingprogressive
-
had been transgressingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of transgress
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin trānsgressus (past participle of trānsgredī “to step across”), equivalent to trāns- trans- + -gred- (combining form of gradī “to step”; see grade) + -tus past participle suffix, with dt becoming ss
Explanation
When you go beyond the boundaries, either physically or morally, you transgress. A river will transgress its banks as it floods, and students who cheat transgress school rules. Transgress sounds like and means nearly the same thing as trespass. When you transgress a rule, you're breaking it. Religions often talk about transgressing: for Christians, breaking a commandment is transgressing against God by violating his wishes. Any transgression is pushing through a boundary: like a neighbor transgressing by letting their dog into your yard: that's a physical and a legal type of transgressing. The dog got into your territory, and the owners broke a rule.
Vocabulary lists containing transgress
Antigone
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Twelfth Night
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Vocabulary from the Magna Carta on its 800th Anniversary
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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:
Taboos became the norm, permission to transgress was extended to everyone and “what was once unthinkable became the only way to think about anything.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
"We don't allow anyone to transgress on our land," he said.
From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2024
That was hardly a fringe view in the progressive ethos of the Bay Area, where he was based, though he still managed to transgress the boundaries on a regular basis.
From New York Times ● Jun. 3, 2024
Rather, institutional principle and precedent predominate in the criminal courts over those who would transgress them.
From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2022
It soon became clear that there were limits beyond which one could not transgress on the Manhattan.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Consider what Christianity, at its core, actually does: It transgresses and disrupts.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2026
The Lib Dem leader said "we need to know... where any MP transgresses the rules".
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2024
But the idea that because an opponent transgresses a norm the standard no longer applies to anyone is a perversion of principle.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 7, 2022
“How do you know who you are when your primal love bond is formed with someone who then transgresses and violates it?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2021
The hypocrite who cloaks his knavery is less dangerous to the commonwealth than he who transgresses in the face of day.
From Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Sharaa ended the speech by promising that the government was "keen on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people".
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2025
Battle lines are drawn and immediately transgressed in a play that takes farce out of the bedroom and into administrative corridors and cubicles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2025
“But if you transgressed . . . by trying to present yourself as somewhat above your station intellectually, then that is the end.”
From Seattle Times ● May 25, 2024
As in Europe, those persecuted as witches in the colonies were commonly poor and marginalized, but women who transgressed Puritan behavioral norms or who attained wealth or property were also at risk.
From Scientific American ● May 31, 2023
She doubted whether she had not transgressed the duty of woman by woman, in betraying her suspicions of Jane Fairfax’s feelings to Frank Churchill.
From "Emma" by Jane Austen
It does its best to misbehave, transgressing between the real and the imaginary, between emotions dangerously raw and overcooked, breaking boundaries between what we call classical music and what we don’t.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2024
On the other hand, with “Alice Sadie Celine,” we are not talking about transgressing the long-gone mores of the 1950s and ’60s.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 25, 2023
The lawsuit also claims that Chop’t did not dispute the fine, which was for transgressing a rule that food service establishments must “operate their premises in such a way as to avoid imminent health hazards.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 28, 2023
The summer of 2023, which was the hottest in recorded history, served as a potent reminder of the consequences of transgressing planetary limits.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2023
Brought up to keep away from these spectacular affairs of the city, she felt she would be transgressing all laws of decorum if she followed her friends.
From Blue Robin, the Girl Pioneer by Rena I. Halsey
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
