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outrage

/ˌaʊtˈreɪdʒ/

/ˈaʊtreɪdʒ/

IPA guide

Other forms: outraged; outrages; outraging

If you consider how people are treated in airports an outrage, you get really angry over airport security or the price of airport food. Six dollars for a piece of pizza? What an outrage!

Something is an outrage when it is shocking and makes you angry. Stealing from an orphanage? That's an outrage. Sometimes outrage leads to action. Public outrage over the latest political scandal often makes the news.

Definitions of outrage
  1. noun
    a disgraceful event
    synonyms: scandal
    see moresee less
    examples:
    Teapot Dome scandal
    a government scandal involving a former United States Navy oil reserve in Wyoming that was secretly leased to a private oil company in 1921; became symbolic of the scandals of the Harding administration
    Watergate scandal
    a political scandal involving abuse of power and bribery and obstruction of justice; led to the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974
    types:
    skeleton, skeleton in the closet, skeleton in the cupboard
    a scandal that is kept secret
    type of:
    trouble
    an event causing distress or pain
  2. noun
    a wantonly cruel act
    see moresee less
    type of:
    atrocity, inhumanity
    an act of atrocious cruelty
  3. noun
    the act of scandalizing
    synonyms: scandalisation, scandalization
    see moresee less
    type of:
    affront, insult
    a deliberately offensive act or something producing the effect of deliberate disrespect
  4. noun
    a feeling of righteous anger
    synonyms: indignation
    see moresee less
    types:
    dudgeon, high dudgeon
    a feeling of intense indignation (usually used in the phrase 'in high dudgeon')
    type of:
    anger, bile, choler, ire
    anger; irritability
  5. verb
    violate the sacred character of a place or language
    synonyms: desecrate, profane, violate
    see moresee less
    type of:
    assail, assault, attack, set on
    attack someone physically or emotionally
  6. verb
    strike with disgust or revulsion
    synonyms: appal, appall, offend, scandalise, scandalize, shock
    see moresee less
    type of:
    churn up, disgust, nauseate, revolt, sicken
    cause aversion in; offend the moral sense of
  7. verb
    force (someone) to have sex against their will
    see moresee less
    types:
    gang-rape
    rape (someone) successively with several attackers
    type of:
    assail, assault, attack, set on
    attack someone physically or emotionally
Pronunciation
US

/ˌaʊtˈreɪdʒ/

UK

/ˈaʊtreɪdʒ/

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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘outrage'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
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