transgress
Americanverb (used without object)
-
transgresses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
transgressed,
past participle, past
-
transgressing
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
transgresses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
transgressed,
past participle, past
-
transgressing
present participle
-
to pass over or go beyond (a limit, boundary, etc.).
to transgress bounds of prudence.
-
to go beyond the limits imposed by (a law, command, etc.); violate; infringe.
to transgress the will of God.
- Synonyms:
- disobey, contravene
- Antonyms:
- obey
verb
-
to break (a law, rule, etc)
-
to go beyond or overstep (a limit)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
transgressornoun
-
nontransgressiveadjective
-
transgressiveadjective
-
untransgressedadjective
-
nontransgressivelyadverb
-
transgressivelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
transgresssimple
-
transgressessimple
-
have transgressedperfect
-
has transgressedperfect
-
am transgressingprogressive
-
are transgressingprogressive
-
is transgressingprogressive
-
have been transgressingperfect progressive
-
has been transgressingperfect progressive
Past
-
transgressedsimple
-
had transgressedperfect
-
was transgressingprogressive
-
were transgressingprogressive
-
had been transgressingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of transgress
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin trānsgressus (past participle of trānsgredī “to step across”), equivalent to trāns- trans- + -gred- (combining form of gradī “to step”; see grade) + -tus past participle suffix, with dt becoming ss
Explanation
When you go beyond the boundaries, either physically or morally, you transgress. A river will transgress its banks as it floods, and students who cheat transgress school rules. Transgress sounds like and means nearly the same thing as trespass. When you transgress a rule, you're breaking it. Religions often talk about transgressing: for Christians, breaking a commandment is transgressing against God by violating his wishes. Any transgression is pushing through a boundary: like a neighbor transgressing by letting their dog into your yard: that's a physical and a legal type of transgressing. The dog got into your territory, and the owners broke a rule.
Vocabulary lists containing transgress
Antigone
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Twelfth Night
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Vocabulary from the Magna Carta on its 800th Anniversary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Taboos became the norm, permission to transgress was extended to everyone and “what was once unthinkable became the only way to think about anything.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, David Hume, for example, argued that suicide did not transgress a person's duty "to God, our neighbour, or ourselves".
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2026
It matters less to me that we transgress, that we fall back or fall prey to our lesser angels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2025
That was hardly a fringe view in the progressive ethos of the Bay Area, where he was based, though he still managed to transgress the boundaries on a regular basis.
From New York Times ● Jun. 3, 2024
It soon became clear that there were limits beyond which one could not transgress on the Manhattan.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
It just said there might be an egregious example “when a state court transgresses the bounds of ordinary judicial review.”
From Salon ● May 11, 2024
“How do you know who you are when your primal love bond is formed with someone who then transgresses and violates it?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2021
In timeouts and during practices, Brooks has shown his more colorful side when the team transgresses his “non-negotiables” — for example, not playing hard.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 22, 2017
“In her music, as in her poetry, film and Conceptual art, she constantly transgresses and mutates the form,” Ms. Munroe added.
From New York Times ● Oct. 27, 2016
From the goodness of God to all, he learns his duty to his fellow-man, and stands self-reproved when he transgresses it.
From The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. II. (of II) With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and England by Moncure Daniel Conway
"We are eager to hold accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people because they are under the protection and responsibility of the state," he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2025
Battle lines are drawn and immediately transgressed in a play that takes farce out of the bedroom and into administrative corridors and cubicles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2025
“But if you transgressed . . . by trying to present yourself as somewhat above your station intellectually, then that is the end.”
From Seattle Times ● May 25, 2024
As in Europe, those persecuted as witches in the colonies were commonly poor and marginalized, but women who transgressed Puritan behavioral norms or who attained wealth or property were also at risk.
From Scientific American ● May 31, 2023
She doubted whether she had not transgressed the duty of woman by woman, in betraying her suspicions of Jane Fairfax’s feelings to Frank Churchill.
From "Emma" by Jane Austen
It does its best to misbehave, transgressing between the real and the imaginary, between emotions dangerously raw and overcooked, breaking boundaries between what we call classical music and what we don’t.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2024
On the other hand, with “Alice Sadie Celine,” we are not talking about transgressing the long-gone mores of the 1950s and ’60s.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 25, 2023
The lawsuit also claims that Chop’t did not dispute the fine, which was for transgressing a rule that food service establishments must “operate their premises in such a way as to avoid imminent health hazards.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 28, 2023
The summer of 2023, which was the hottest in recorded history, served as a potent reminder of the consequences of transgressing planetary limits.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2023
I feel the disgrace of this; but, oh, if I can only through this disgrace recover my lost honour,--if I can only, by thus transgressing law, cease to be lawless!
From Only a Girl: or, A Physician for the Soul. by Wilhelmine von Hillern
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
