in·sult·ing
in-ˈsəl-tiŋ 
: giving or intended to give offense : being or containing an insult (see insult entry 2 sense 1)
Without the wit, of course, such sentiments would be construed as deeply insulting …—
The American Scholar
The American Scholar… pasted insulting bumper stickers on their vehicles …—James A. Michener
James A. Michener… considered the proposal so impracticable as to be insulting.—Alice Adams
Alice AdamsThe book is "dumbed down" to an almost insulting level.—Joel Bangilan
Joel Bangilan
insultingly
adverb
But always his triumphs are the triumphs of a highly sensitive man: a man must feel insults before he can so insultingly and splendidly avenge them.
—G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
He is a gifted preacher, fashioning sermons that are neither inaccessibly erudite nor insultingly shallow.
—Kevin Sack
Kevin Sack
insulting
2 of 2present participle of insult entry 1
Examples of insulting in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Sahar Delijani
july 17, Literary Hub, 17 July 2025
The deliberate and insulting call-out immediately sent the wrestling world into a frenzy.
—Andrew Ravens, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 July 2025
Gallagher has previously apologized for a homophobic tweet about Russian soccer hooligans, for posting a death threat to an Atletico Madrid player, and for insulting Coldplay, and has deleted other posts over the years, including one containing an ableist slur.
—Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 4 July 2025
Stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni is insulting because a macaroni was a pejorative term used to describe a fashionable man with feminine traits of 18th-century Britain.
—Kurt Snibbe, Oc Register, 2 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for insulting
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Adjective
And then, especially in the past several years, friends who stayed say: Honestly, this is kind of insulting—the way people keep talking about Lebanon from afar.
—Sahar Delijani
july 17, Literary Hub, 17 July 2025
The deliberate and insulting call-out immediately sent the wrestling world into a frenzy.
—Andrew Ravens, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 July 2025
Gallagher has previously apologized for a homophobic tweet about Russian soccer hooligans, for posting a death threat to an Atletico Madrid player, and for insulting Coldplay, and has deleted other posts over the years, including one containing an ableist slur.
—Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 4 July 2025
Stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni is insulting because a macaroni was a pejorative term used to describe a fashionable man with feminine traits of 18th-century Britain.
—Kurt Snibbe, Oc Register, 2 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for insulting
Cite this Entry
“Insulting.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insulting. Accessed 29 Jul. 2025.
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