Definition of "offense" []

• The act of causing anger, resentment, displeasure, or affront. (noun)
• The state of being offended. (noun)
• A violation or infraction of a moral or social code; a transgression or sin. (noun)
• A transgression of law; a crime. (noun)
• Something that outrages moral sensibilities: Genocide is an offense to all civilized humans. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Children will profit from drill in and out of school in the science of avoiding offense and of giving happiness, but unless the categories -- _acts that give offense_ and _acts that give happiness_ -- are wide enough to include the main acts committed in the normal relations of son, companion, employer, husband, father, and citizen, those who set out to avoid alcohol and tobacco find themselves ill equipped to carry the obligations of a temperate, law-abiding citizen."
• "KEY RETURNEES: Crawford will be the man around whom the offense is again centered if he returns after averaging 20.5 points."
• "This offense is the highest intensification of sin, something that is usually overlooked because the opposites are not construed Christianly as being sin/faith (Kierkegaard, 129ff)."