Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Affront

Af·front′ (ăf·frŭnt′), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Affronted; p. pr. & vb. n. Affronting.] [OF. afronter, F. affronter, to confront, LL. affrontare to strike against, fr. L. ad + frons forehead, front. See Front.] 1. To front; to face in position; to meet or encounter face to face. [Obs.]

All the sea-coasts do affront the Levant. Holland.

That he, as 't were by accident, may here Affront Ophelia. Shak.

2. To face in defiance; to confront; as, to affront death; hence, to meet in hostile encounter. [Archaic]

3. To offend by some manifestation of disrespect; to insult to the face by demeanor or language; to treat with marked incivility.

How can any one imagine that the fathers would have dared to affront the wife of Aurelius? Addison.

Syn. — To insult; abuse; outrage; wound; illtreat; slight; defy; offend; provoke; pique; nettle.

Af·front′, n. [Cf. F. affront, fr. affronter.] 1. An encounter either friendly or hostile. [Obs.]

I walked about, admired of all, and dreaded On hostile ground, none daring my affront. Milton.

2. Contemptuous or rude treatment which excites or justifies resentment; marked disrespect; a purposed indignity; insult.

Offering an affront to our understanding. Addison.

3. An offense to one's self-respect; shame. Arbuthnot.

Syn. — Affront, Insult, Outrage. An affront is a designed mark of disrespect, usually in the presence of others. An insult is a personal attack either by words or actions, designed to humiliate or degrade. An outrage is an act of extreme and violent insult or abuse. An affront piques and mortifies; an insult irritates and provokes; an outrage wounds and injures.

Captious persons construe every innocent freedom into an affront. When people are in a state of animosity, they seek opportunities of offering each other insults. Intoxication or violent passion impels men to the commission of outrages. Crabb.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.