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umbrage - 4 dictionary results

um⋅brage

[uhm-brij]
–noun
1. offense; annoyance; displeasure: to feel umbrage at a social snub; to give umbrage to someone; to take umbrage at someone's rudeness.
2. the slightest indication or vaguest feeling of suspicion, doubt, hostility, or the like.
3. leaves that afford shade, as the foliage of trees.
4. shade or shadows, as cast by trees.
5. a shadowy appearance or semblance of something.

Origin:
1400–50; late ME < OF; see umbra, -age


1. pique, grudge, resentment.
um·brage   (ŭm'brĭj)   
n.  
  1. Offense; resentment: took umbrage at their rudeness.
    1. Something that affords shade.
    2. Shadow or shade. See Synonyms at shade.
  2. A vague or indistinct indication; a hint.

[Middle English, shade, from Old French, from Latin umbrāticum, neuter of umbrāticus, of shade, from umbra, shadow.]

Umbrage

Um"brage\ (?; 48), n. [F. ombrage shade, suspicion, umbrage, L. umbraticus belonging to shade, fr. umbra a shade. Cf. Umber, Umbratic.]

1. Shade; shadow; obscurity; hence, that which affords a shade, as a screen of trees or foliage.

Where highest woods, impenetrable To star or sunlight, spread their umbrage broad. --Milton.

2. Shadowy resemblance; shadow. [Obs.]

The opinion carries no show of truth nor umbrage of reason on its side. --Woodward.

3. The feeling of being overshadowed; jealousy of another, as standing in one's light or way; hence, suspicion of injury or wrong; offense; resentment.

Which gave umbrage to wiser than myself. --Evelyn.

Persons who feel most umbrage from the overshadowing aristocracy. --Sir W. Scott.

umbrage 
1426, "shadow, shade," from M.Fr. ombrage "shade, shadow," from L. umbraticum, neut. of umbraticus "of or pertaining to shade," from umbra "shade, shadow," from PIE base *andho- "blind, dark" (cf. Skt. andha-, Avestan anda- "blind, dark"). Many fig. uses 17c.; main remaining one is the meaning "suspicion that one has been slighted," first recorded 1620; hence phrase to take umbrage at, attested from 1680.
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