INSOLENT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Insolent

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/ˈɪnsələnt/ Listen

adjective

Insolent adj.

1.

Deviating from that which is customary; novel; strange; unusual. (Obs.) "If one chance to derive any word from the Latin which is insolent to their ears... they forthwith make a jest at it." "If any should accuse me of being new or insolent."

2.

Haughty and contemptuous or brutal in behavior or language; overbearing; domineering; grossly rude or disrespectful; saucy; as, an insolent master; an insolent servant. "A paltry, insolent fellow." "Insolent is he that despiseth in his judgment all other folks as in regard of his value, of his cunning, of his speaking, and of his bearing." "Can you not see? or will ye not observe... How insolent of late he is become, How proud, how peremptory?"

3.

Proceeding from or characterized by insolence; insulting; as, insolent words or behavior. "Their insolent triumph excited... indignation."

Synonyms: Overbearing; insulting; abusive; offensive; saucy; impudent; audacious; pert; impertinent; rude; reproachful; opprobrious. Insolent, Insulting. Insolent, in its primitive sense, simply denoted unusual; and to act insolently was to act in violation of the established rules of social intercourse. He who did this was insolent; and thus the word became one of the most offensive in our language, indicating gross disregard for the feelings of others. Insulting denotes a personal attack, either in words or actions, indicative either of scorn or triumph. Compare Impertinent, Affront, Impudence.

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Etymology of 'Insolent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Insolent" Quotes from Famous Books

... feeling of such a people as the German, stamped in the civilization of which it was one of the generating elements, can be killed, or that it can bear for a long while such an outrage? Do you think that the people which met the insolent bulls of the Pope in Rome by the Reformation and the thirty years' war, and the numberless armies of Napoleon by a general rising—that this people will tamely submit to the Russian influence, more arrogant than the Papal pretensions, more disastrous than the ...

— Select Speeches of Kossuth • Kossuth

... his arm, I concluded to be a chief) and made him a present of some nails and beads, which were accepted with evident pleasure, and immediately conciliated his friendship. This was a fortunate step, as he afterwards often showed his authority by checking the most insolent of his people when they pressed forward and endeavoured to steal whatever they could seize. One seaman holding his cutlass rather carelessly had it snatched from him, and the thief had so well watched his opportunity, that he was almost out of ...

— The Voyage Of Governor Phillip To Botany Bay • Arthur Phillip

... one king, and by that meanes were the better able to resist the enimies; yet at length those Danes subdued the whole, and had possession thereof for a time although not long, but that the crowne returned againe to those of the Saxon line: till shortlie after, by the insolent dealings of the gouernours, a diuision was made betwixt the king and his people, through iust punishment decreed by the prouidence of the Almightie, determining for their sinnes and contempt of his lawes, ...

— Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (1 of 12) - William the Conqueror • Raphael Holinshed

... Then the Isosceles classes, asserting that the Specimens were no longer used nor needed, and refusing to pay the customary tribute from the Criminal classes to the service of Education, waxed daily more numerous and more insolent on the strength of their immunity from the old burden which had formerly exercised the twofold wholesome effect of at once taming their brutal nature ...

— Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Illustrated) • Edwin A. Abbott

... have taken him for Tao, the Great Dane. He was not excited—and yet he was filled with a mighty desire—more than that, a tremendous purpose. The yelping excitement of the oncoming Eskimo dogs no longer urged him to turn aside to avoid their insolent bluster, as he would have turned aside yesterday or the day before. The voices of his old masters no longer sent him slinking out of their way, a growl in his throat and his body sagging with humiliation and the rage of his slavery. He stood like ...

— Back to God's Country and Other Stories • James Oliver Curwood

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