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Showing results for take offense. Search instead for take+offence.
Synonyms

take offense

Idioms  

  1. Feel resentment or emotional pain, as in I didn't realize he'd take offense when he wasn't invited. [Mid-1800s]

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.

Conflict-Averse Formalism: The second most common type of art in public, these works are most notable for being inoffensively pretty at a time when people can take offense at anything.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 2025

Which would sort of make sense, if machines could actually take offense at anything.

From Slate • Aug. 31, 2025

But Green’s frustration subsided when he said on his podcast Monday that he saw the comments “through the right mindset, through the right lens” and decided not to take offense.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 9, 2024

Audrey smiled, but she’s been known to take offense when ElliQ is spoken to harshly.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 22, 2023

She knew he was trying to be funny, so she didn’t take offense.

From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.