affronting

Verb

affront (third-person singular simple present affronts, present participle affronting, simple past and past participle affronted)

1. (transitive) To insult intentionally, especially openly.
   • But beſides, that ſuch a thought was inconſiſtent with the gravity of a Senate, how can one imagine that the Fathers would have dared affront the Wife of Aurelius, and the Mother of Commodus, or that they could think of giving offence to an Empreſs whom they afterwards Defied, and to an Emperor...1701–03, Joseph Addison, “The Isle of Caprea”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c., published 1721, page 92
2. (transitive) To be an affront to; offend.
   • European fear and contempt for the American Indian, Allen contends, largely came about because the sexual, economic, and political ways of the woman-centered tribes affronted their own patriarchal assumptions.1986 February 15, Patricia Clark Smith, “A Fresh Wind in the Museum: The Sacred Hoop”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 39, page B7
3. (transitive) To meet defiantly; to confront.
   • to affront death
4. (obsolete, transitive) To meet or encounter face to face.
   • Many Iſlands there lie all over that ſea : but one above the reſt, and moſt renowned, is Tazata : for thither all the ſhipping from out of the Caſpian ſea and the Scythian Ocean, doe bend their courſe and there arrive : for that all the ſea coaſts doe affront the Levant, and turne into the Eaſt.1601, Pliny the Elder, translated by Philemon Holland, The History of the World, volume I, translation of Naturalis Historia (in Classical Latin), published 1634, book VI, page 124

See all 6 meanings of affront