A comment which is intended to offend someone.

Insults often use swear words; rude references to the victim's mother; derogatory comments about his or her sex life, habits, intellect, job, or attitude; or suggestions that he or she perform disgusting sexual acts.

In the diaper industry, "insult" is the euphemism for the release of liquid (i.e., urine, or a runny bowel movement) that the diaper must absorb.

Martin Williams, in a corporate report, uses it as both a noun and a verb:
With the continuing growth in the market for adult incontinence products, the amount of body fluid to insult the diaper and the number of insults a diaper is required to withstand have created more stringent performance criteria for wicking agents for cover stock. (Williams, From Diapers to Industrial Textiles - Fiber Finishes That Cover the Surface, Uniquema, 2001(? ), <:http://www.uniqema.com/fibres/lit/fibres11.pdf> (19 February 2002)
A paean to disposable diaper technology in The New Yorker noted of Kimberly-Clark's Huggies Ultratrim:
A typical insult arrives at a rate of seven millilitres a second, and might total seventy millilitres of fluid. The liner can clear that insult in less than twenty seconds. The core can hold three or more of those insults, with a chance of leakage in the single digits. Malcolm Gladwell, "Smaller," The New Yorker, 26 November 2001.
With this new usage, of course, a word heretofore used to describe a class of unpleasant speech, now may refer to a specific unpleasantness (i.e., what is released into a diaper)-- thus insult can now be used as an insult.

In"sult (?), n. [L. insultus, fr. insilire to leap upon: cf. F. insulte. See Insult, v. t.]

1.

The act of leaping on; onset; attack.

[Obs.]

Dryden.

2.

Gross abuse offered to another, either by word or act; an act or speech of insolence or contempt; an affront; an indignity.

The ruthless sneer that insult adds to grief. Savage.

Syn. -- Affront; indignity; abuse; outrage; contumely. See Affront.

 

© Webster 1913.


In*sult" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Insulted; p. pr. & vb. n. Insulting.] [F. insulter, L. insultare, freq. fr. insilire to leap into or upon; pref. in- in, on + salire to leap. See Salient.]

1.

To leap or trample upon; to make a sudden onset upon.

[Obs.]

Shak.

2.

To treat with abuse, insolence, indignity, or contempt, by word or action; to abuse; as, to call a man a coward or a liar, or to sneer at him, is to insult him.

 

© Webster 1913.


In*sult", v. i.

1.

To leap or jump.

Give me thy knife, I will insult on him. Shak.

Like the frogs in the apologue, insulting upon their wooden king. Jer. Taylor.

2.

To behave with insolence; to exult.

[Archaic]

The lion being dead, even hares insult. Daniel.

An unwillingness to insult over their helpless fatuity. Landor.

 

© Webster 1913.

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