offensive

Causing offense; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, hatred, sadness, or indignation.

Adjective

Causing offense; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, hatred, sadness, or indignation.
- Some people find pornography offensive.
- An offensive smell.
- A survey at Yale University had 63% of students wanting professors to issue “trigger warnings” before saying anything that some might find offensive or could cause painful emotions. - 2016 September 12, Kareem...
Antonyms: inoffensive
Relating to an offense or attack, as opposed to defensive.
- The army's offensive capabilities. An offensive weapon.
- In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once...
Antonyms: defensive
Having to do with play directed at scoring.
- The offensive coordinator is responsible for ordering all rushing plays.

From Middle French offensif, from offendre + -if by analogy with défensif. Offendre is from Latin offendere (“to offend”); see offend.

An attack.
- The Marines today launched a major offensive.
- In Central Hupeh, the Japanese launched another offensive from the Kingshan region, but instead of moving southwestward to cooperate with another column of theirs to capture Shasi, this column swerved to the northwest...
- By the summer of 1939, a stringent military blockade had been imposed on the Shen-Kan-Ning. In the winter of 1939–1940, the Nationalists launched an offensive against the outskirts of the Border Region. Thereafter,...
The posture of attacking or being able to attack.
- He took the offensive in the press, accusing his opponent of corruption.