INSOLENCE

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An offensive disrespectful impudent act

Classified under:

Hypernyms ("insolence" is a kind of...):

discourtesy; offence; offense; offensive activity (a lack of politeness; a failure to show regard for others; wounding the feelings or others)

Derivation:

insolent (marked by casual disrespect)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The trait of being rude and impertinent; inclined to take liberties

Synonyms:

cheekiness; crust; freshness; gall; impertinence; impudence; insolence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("insolence" is a kind of...):

discourtesy; rudeness (a manner that is rude and insulting)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "insolence"):

chutzpa; chutzpah; hutzpah ((Yiddish) unbelievable gall; insolence; audacity)

Derivation:

insolent (unrestrained by convention or propriety)

insolent (marked by casual disrespect)

Credits

Context examples:

I am sure, sir, I should never mistake informality for insolence: one I rather like, the other nothing free-born would submit to, even for a salary.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Think, then, what I must have endured in hearing it bandied between the Eltons with all the vulgarity of needless repetition, and all the insolence of imaginary superiority.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Well, he continued, looking round him with an insolent stare, I should vastly like to know who has had the insolence to give me so pressing an invitation to visit my own house, and what in the devil you mean by daring to trespass upon my grounds?

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She knew him; she saw disdain in his eye, and could not venture to believe that he had determined to accept such an offering, as an atonement for all the insolence of the past.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The palace of a chief minister is a seminary to breed up others in his own trade: the pages, lackeys, and porters, by imitating their master, become ministers of state in their several districts, and learn to excel in the three principal ingredients, of insolence, lying, and bribery.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

And you're the last above board of that same meddling crew; and you have the Davy Jones's insolence to up and stand for cap'n over me—you, that sank the lot of us!

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

And will you consent to dispense with a great many conventional forms and phrases, without thinking that the omission arises from insolence?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The studied indifference, insolence, and discontent of her husband gave her no pain; and when he scolded or abused her, she was highly diverted.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

“Ready to chastise insolence, sir,” cried Alleyne with flashing eyes.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Without any reason that could justify, any apology that could atone for the abruptness, the rudeness, nay, the insolence of it.