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Unoffending; inoffensive.

The state or posture of one who offends or makes attack; aggressive attitude; the act of the attacking party; -- opposed to defensive. To act on the offensive, to be the attacking party.

en; frequently; not rarely; many times. [Poetic] Chaucer. Oft she rejects, but never once offends. Pope.

Long practiced; hence, skilled; experienced; cunning; as, an old offender; old in vice. Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old. Milton.

To exhibit; to manifest. [Obs.] Mercy to mean offenders we'll ostend. J. Webster.

The act of pardoning; forgiveness, as of an offender, or of an offense; release from penalty; remission of punishment; absolution. Pardon, my lord, for me and for my tidings. Shak. But infinite in pardon was my judge. Milton. Used in expressing courteous denial or contradiction; as, I crave your pardon; or in indicatin…

requiring the excution of penalty; venial; excusable; -- applied to the offense or to the offender; as, a pardonable fault, or culprit.

cense of the nature of a patent. If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her patent to offend. Shak.

An offender. [Obs.] Whitlock.

A house of correction, in which offenders are confined for punishment, discipline, and reformation, and in which they are generally compelled to labor.

, etc. -- Petit treason, formerly, in England, the crime of killing a person to whom the offender owed duty or subjection, as one's husband, master, mistress, etc. The crime is now not distinguished from murder.

A military punishment, formerly resorted to, in which the offender was forced to stand with one foot on a pointed stake.

ustable boards erected on a post, and having holes through which the head and hands of an offender were thrust so as to be exposed in front of it. Shak.

To wound the pride of; to sting; to nettle; to irritate; to fret; to offend; to excite to anger. Pique her, and soothe in turn. Byron.

The act of appeasing the wrath and conciliating the favor of an offended person; the act of making propitious.

, and continuance of a criminal suit; the process of exhibiting formal charges against an offender before a legal tribunal, and pursuing them to final judgment on behalf of the state or government, as by indictment or information.

rson, to action by a challenge, by taunts, or by defiance; to exasperate; to irritate; to offend intolerably; to cause to retaliate. Obey his voice, provoke him not. Ex. xxiii. 21. Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. Eph. vi. 4. Such acts Of contumacy will provoke the Highest To make death in us live. Milto…

with pain, loss, or suffering for a crime or fault, either with or without a view to the offender's amendment; to cause to suffer in retribution; to chasten; as, to punish traitors with death; a father punishes his child for willful disobedience. A greater power Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned. Milton.…

A penalty inflicted by a court of justice on a convicted offender as a just retribution, and incidentally for the purposes of reformation and prevention.

, a quick temper. The bishop was somewhat quick with them, and signified that he was much offended. Latimer.