offensively

English

Alternative forms

• offencively (archaic, nonstandard)

Etymology

Etymology tree

English offensive

Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der.

Proto-Germanic *līkąder.

Proto-Germanic *-līkaz

Proto-Germanic *-ê

Proto-Germanic *-līkê

Proto-West Germanic *-līkē

Old English -līċe

Middle English -ly

English -ly

English offensively

From offensive + -ly.

Pronunciation

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /əˈfɛnsɪvli/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adverb

offensively (comparative more offensively, superlative most offensively)

1. In an offensive manner.
   • 1948, The American Magazine, volume 145, page 122:

     I am sure the hostess will leave off her list men and women who usually drink too much, the woman who gets mushy and tries to steal all the handsomest husbands, the man who offensively would take this opportunity to try to build up sales contacts, […]

   • 2014 April 19, Stephen Schaefer, “Wayans’ ‘Haunted’ sequel fails to scare up laughs”, in Boston Herald‎^[1], archived from the original on 8 October 2020, retrieved 22 April 2014:

     Malcolm seeks help via the Internet but not before he has elaborately explicit “sex” with Abigail, easily among the most offensively tasteless gross-outs in a movie that delights in them.

   • 2018 October 12, aabicus, “My 7 Favorite Fairy Chess Pieces”, in The Daily SPUF‎^[2], archived from the original on 2 August 2021:

     The problem is that it would be difficult to use a joker offensively since you could never know how it was going to move, meaning it’d be most useful setting it up for potential queen/rook captures to disincentivize your opponent from moving those pieces.

Translations

in an offensive manner

• Catalan: ofensivament (ca)
• Esperanto: ofende
• Russian: оби́дно (ru) (obídno)
• Spanish: ofensivamente