Offensive

1. (a.) Giving offense; causing displeasure or resentment; displeasing; annoying; as, offensive words.

2. (a.) Giving pain or unpleasant sensations; disagreeable; revolting; noxious; as, an offensive smell; offensive sounds.

3. (a.) Making the first attack; assailant; aggressive; hence, used in attacking; -- opposed to defensive; as, an offensive war; offensive weapons.

4. (n.) The state or posture of one who offends or makes attack; aggressive attitude; the act of the attacking party; -- opposed to defensive.

Thesaurus Entries

Fescennine, Rabelaisian, abhorrent, abominable, abusive, aggravated assault, aggression, aggressive, amphibious attack, antagonistic, appalling, armed assault, arrant, assailing, assailment, assault, atrocious, attack, attacking, awful, backhand, backhanded, bad, bad-smelling, banzai attack, barfy, base, battling, bawdy, beastly, bellicose, belligerent, below contempt, beneath contempt, blameworthy, blitz, blitzkrieg, bloodthirsty, bloody, bloody-minded, blue, boorish, brackish, breakthrough, brutal, caddish, calumnious, charge, chauvinist, chauvinistic, chintzy, cloying, coarse, combative, contemptible, contentious, contumelious, counterattack, counteroffensive, coup de main, crippling attack, crude, dead set at, degrading, deplorable, descent on, despicable, detestable, dire, dirty, disagreeable, discourteous, disgusting, displeasing, disrespectful, diversion, diversionary attack, dreadful, drive, egregious, enemy, enormous, evil, execrable, fecal, ferocious, fetid, fierce, fighting, filthy, flagrant, flank attack, forbidding, foul, foul-mouthed, foul-spoken, foul-tongued, frightful, frontal attack, frowsty, frowy, frowzy, full of fight, fulsome, funky, fusty, gamy, gas attack, ghastly, graveolent, grievous, grim, grisly, gross, gruesome, hateful, hawkish, head-on attack, heinous, hideous, high, horrible, horrid, hostile, humiliating, icky, ignoble, ill-bred, ill-smelling, impertinent, impolite, improper, impudent, impure, in bad taste, inappropriate, inconsiderate, indecent, indecorous, indelicate, inelegant, infamous, infiltration, inimical, insensitive, insolent, insulting, ithyphallic, jingo, jingoish, jingoist, jingoistic, lamentable, left-handed, lewd, lightning attack, lightning war, loathsome, lousy, loutish, louty, lurid, maggoty, malodorous, martial, mass attack, mawkish, megadeath, mephitic, miasmal, miasmic, mildewed, mildewy, militant, militaristic, military, moldy, monstrous, mugging, musty, nasty, nauseant, nauseating, nauseous, nefarious, nidorous, noisome, notorious, noxious, objectionable, obnoxious, obscene, odious, odorous, offense, olid, on the offensive, onset, onslaught, outrageous, overkill, overripe, panzer warfare, pitiable, pitiful, poisonous, pornographic, provocative, pugnacious, push, putrescent, putrid, quarrelsome, rancid, rank, raunchy, reasty, reasy, rebarbative, reechy, reeking, reeky, regrettable, repellent, repelling, reprehensible, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, ribald, rotten, rude, run against, run at, rush, saber-rattling, sad, salacious, sally, sanguinary, sanguineous, savage, scandalous, schlock, scrappy, scurrile, scurrilous, scurvy, shabby, shameful, shock tactics, shocking, shoddy, sickening