Definition of "transgressive" [trans•gress•ive]

• Exceeding a limit or boundary, especially of social acceptability. (adjective)
• Of or relating to a genre of fiction, filmmaking, or art characterized by graphic depictions of behavior that violates socially acceptable norms, often involving violence, drug use, and sexual deviancy. (adjective)
• Of or relating to geological transgression. (adjective)

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.

• "It adds to the discomfiture that this soft-spoken ex-journalist -- who cheerfully labels his work "transgressive" -- looks uncannily like Anthony Perkins circa Psycho."
• "Shakespeare, who understood this best, subtitled his transgressive play What You Will."
• "Shakespeare, who understood this best, subtitled his transgressive play What You Will'."