The Collaborative International Dictionary
Offensive \Of*fen"sive\, a. [Cf. F. offensif. See Offend.]
Giving offense; causing displeasure or resentment; displeasing; annoying; as, offensive words.
Giving pain or unpleasant sensations; disagreeable; revolting; noxious; as, an offensive smell; offensive sounds. ``Offensive to the stomach.''
--Bacon.-
Making the first attack; assailant; aggressive; hence, used in attacking; -- opposed to defensive; as, an offensive war; offensive weapons.
League offensive and defensive, a leaque that requires all the parties to it to make war together against any foe, and to defend one another if attacked.
Syn: Displeasing; disagreeable; distasteful; obnoxious; abhorrent; disgusting; impertinent; rude; saucy; reproachful; opprobrious; insulting; insolent; abusive; scurrilous; assailant; attacking; invading. [1913 Webster] -- Of*fen"sive*ly, adv. -- Of*fen"sive*ness, n.
Wiktionary
adv. In an offensive manner. alt. In an offensive manner.
WordNet
adv. in an unpleasantly offensive manner; "he smelled offensively unwashed" [ant: inoffensively]
in an obnoxious manner; "he said so in one of his more offensively intellectually arrogant sentences" [syn: objectionably, obnoxiously]
in an aggressive manner; "`In this crisis, we must act offensively,' the President said"; "the admiral intends to act offensively in the Mediterranean" [ant: defensively]
Usage examples of "offensively".
Johnson was vain, loquacious, and offensively egotistic: Jackson, on the other hand, was proud, reserved, and with such abounding self-respect as excluded egotism.
Gerhardt seemed almost offensively bubbling with confidence, gloating as he informed Harker that it was only a matter of days before the court tossed Raymond and Harker out of control of Beller Labs and reinstated Klaus and Mitchison.
She flung the mirror down, struggled out of the whispering, offensively clinging silks, tossed them aside, and wept for shame and disappointment.
Either they oppose us, offensively or defensively, or the pacification-destruction of the nonliving war zone heats up the conflict that is still smoldering on the planet, and thereby we push them into total war.
Where there had been bomb and fire damage-and around this old quarter surrounding the Cathedral it had been heavy-there were replacements, lighter in colour yet not offensively new.
An army acting offensively usually suffers more from capture than one on the defensive.
A leprechaun is always a sourpuss, and a cluricaune is usually almost offensively cheerful-Fir Darrigs tend to oscillate between the two states.
For all his theories about man's relationship to land, the Fresians and Aberdeen Angus crosses he could see grazing placidly below, never mind the gaps between them, looked offensively luxurious.
But that was as good as telling him, and the more kindly the more offensively, that all his efforts hitherto had miscarried, that he should finally give up, come back home, and be gaped at by everyone as a returned prodigal, that only his friends knew what was what and that he himself was just a big child who should do what his successful and home-keeping friends prescribed.