▪ I. affront, v.
(əˈfrʌnt)
Also 4–5 afrount, afront.
[a. OFr. afronte-r, afrunte-r (cf. Pr. and Sp. afrontar, It. affrontare):—late L. affrontā-re, adfrontā-re f. ad front-em to the face. Afronter has in OFr. the meaning ‘to strike on the forehead, to slap in the face’; hence, fig. to insult one to his face. The lit. meaning is not found in Eng.]
1. To insult (a person or thing personified) to his face, to treat with avowed or open indignity.
| c 1315 Pol. Songs (1839) 337 An if a pore man speke a word, he shal be foule afrounted. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xxiii. 5 With neode ich mette That afrontede me foule. 1577 Hellowes tr. Gueuara's Gold. Ep. 2 Not to honor vs, but to affront vs. 1665 Glanville Scepsis Sci. i. 1 We cannot, without affronting the Divine Goodness, deny but that at first we were made wise and happy. 1757 Burke Abridgm. Eng. Hist. Wks. X. 496 The Duke of Austria whom he [Richard I] had personally affronted at the siege of Acre. 1783 Cowper Lett. 31 May, Wks. 1876, 132 The law of our land is affronted if we say the king dies. 1824 W. Irving T. of Trav. II. 34 It would have been ruin to affront them. |
2. To put to the blush; to offend the modesty or self-respect of; to cause to feel ashamed. refl. To feel affronted, to blush (obs.). (Said of the feeling produced rather than of the act or purpose).
| 1340 Ayenb. 229 Vor huo þet him y[e]fþ to voule wordes, hi ham ssolle naȝt ssamie and afrounti, þet is to zigge, hi lyezeþ þe ssame. 1673 Cave Primit. Chr. ii. ii. 33 Without affronting their modesty. 1707 Farquhar Beaux' Strat. i. i. 9 Let me look you full in the Face, and I'll tell you whether you can affront me or no. 1741 H. Walpole Lett. to H. Mann 13 (1834) I. 38 Your friend Lord Sandwich affronted his Grace of Grafton extremely. 1809 N. Pinkney Trav. France 22 [He] would have affronted you by his sulky reserve. c 1860 Maurice Mor. & Metaph. Philos. IV. viii. §56. 498 [It] does not affront the family feeling. |
3. To face in defiance; confront. Now chiefly fig., as to affront death.
| 1563 Grafton Q. Mary an. 6 (R.) King Philip and the French King with two most puyssaunt armies affronted eche other neere vnto the water of Some. 1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. iii. 22 Who, him affronting soone, to fight was readie prest. 1661 Bramhall Just Vind. vii. 188 How their Kings..have all of them, in all ages, affronted and curbed the Roman Court. 1856 Bryant Knight's Epitaph 37 He..affronted death In battle-field. 1863 Kinglake Crimea (1877) III. i. 50 He was affronting great risk without due motive. |
† b. To meet in hostile encounter, to attack. Obs.
| 1600 Holland Livy i. xxv. 18 g, These brave brethren..affronted [concurrunt] one another, and with cruell and mortall weapons gave the charge. 1642 Rogers Naaman 96 A shrewd right winde, gets into the hollow of the tree, and affronts it on the rotten side. 1700 Dryden Fabl. Cock & Fox 643 [He] affronted once a cock of noble kind, And either lam'd his legs or struck him blind. |
† 4. To meet intentionally or of purpose, to throw oneself in the way of, accost, address. Obs.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 31 That he, as 'twere by accident, may there Affront Ophelia. 1633 T. Adams Exp. 2 Pet. ii. 13 (1865) 458/1 So Jezebel painted her face, and affronted Jehu out of the window. |
5. To front, to face in position; to look toward. arch.
| 1600 Holland Livy xliii. xviii. 1166 m, Macedonie, which regardeth and affronteth Illyricum. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. i. v. 33 But it abated the Puissance thereof [i.e. of Mercia], because on the West it affronted the Britans, being deadly enemies. a 1658 Cleveland Gen. Poems, &c. (1677) 166 We see the Sun better by looking into the Waters, than by affronting his Beams. 1873 Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 654 On emergence, what affronts our gaze? |
† 6. fig. To face anticipatively; to prepare to meet; look out for. Obs. rare.
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iv. iii. 29 Your preparation can affront no lesse Then what you heare off. Come more, for more you're ready. |
† 7. causal. To confront one thing with another; to set face to face. Obs. rare.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. ii. 173 That my integritie and truth to you, Might be affronted with the match and waight Of such a winnowed puritie in loue. |
▪ II. affront, n.
(əˈfrʌnt)
[f. the vb. Cf. Fr. affront (16th c. in Littré).]
1. An insult offered to the face; a word or act expressive of intentional disrespect; a purposed indignity; an open insult or outrage; esp. in the phrases to put an affront upon, offer an affront to.
| 1598 Barret Theor. Warres iv. i. 102 Whereat no man ought to be offended, or take it for any affront. 1671 Milton P.R. iii. 160 Oft have they violated The temple, oft the law with foul affronts. 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. 62 Though they had offered great affronts to his Person and proceedings. 1855 Macaulay Fredk. Gt. 59 To resent his affronts was perilous. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. I. App. 630 It was certainly something to have put an open affront upon the Eastern king. |
2. Offence to one's dignity or modesty, felt indignity.
| 1662 Dryden Sat. Dutch 27 To one well-born the affront is worse and more, When he's abused and baffled by a boor. 1716–18 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. II. xliv. 16 These women..look upon this..as the greatest disgrace and affront that can happen to them. 1769 Junius Lett. xxxv. 160 Such an object as it would be an affront to you to name. 1784 Cowper Lett. Mar. 29 Wks. 1876, 164 Candidates are creatures not very susceptible of affronts. 1816 Scott Old Mort. 65 The unexpected, and, as she deemed it, indelible affront, which had been brought upon her dignity. Mod. adage. ‘Affronts are as they are taken.’ |
† 3. Hostile encounter, attack, assault. Obs.
| 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. 229 [They] that were not slaine in the first affront of the entrance into the citie. 1671 Milton Samson 529 And dreaded On hostile ground, none daring my affront. 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. 103 He met with no other affront from Apollyon. |
† 4. A position of hostility or defiance; concr. an obstacle. Obs.
| 1642 Rogers Naaman 94 Even Ministers are often great affronts in the way of poore soules. 1644 Heylin Life of Laud i. 45 His Studies in Divinity, in the exercise whereof he met with some affronts and oppositions. 1648 Symmons Vind. Chas. 1, 6 To suffer it to continue in affront to their general ordinance. |
† 5. An encounter or meeting generally; accost. Obs.
| 1614 J. Cooke Green's Tu quoq. (Dodsl.) VII. 95 This I must caution you of, in your affront or salute, never to move your hat. 1632 Heywood Iron Age i. ii. i. 294 Whom we wil giue a braue and proud affront. |