offensive
part of speech
adjective (offensive words, more offensive); noun (an offensive, offensives)
meaning for a pupil
1) Rude or insulting, likely to upset people. tree →
2) Very unpleasant to the senses: an offensive smell. tree →
3) (sport, US) To do with attacking and scoring, not defending: the offensive team. tree →
4) (noun) A big attack in a war: launch an offensive. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life and school rules, offensive language is not allowed. In sport, especially American football and basketball, offense and offensive players attack. In history, an offensive is a large attack by an army. Phrases: offensive language, go on the offensive, offensive line.
examples
- Using offensive words in class is not allowed. tree →
- There was an offensive smell coming from the bin. tree →
- That joke is offensive to many people. tree →
- Our team's offensive play was brilliant. tree →
- The army began a spring offensive. tree →
- When she was blamed, she went on the offensive. tree →
- And indeed Tink was darting about again, using offensive language. tree →
note
Opposite in sport: defensive. Opposite in manners: polite, inoffensive. «Go on the offensive» means start attacking or arguing back. Linked to offend and offended; offended = how you feel, offensive = what caused it.
In the corpora
- "No offence, but" comes just before something offensive.
- Some words are hurtful or offensive even if the child saying them does not know their meaning.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «offensive» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.