Inoffensive definitions

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INOFFENS'IVE, a. [in and offensive.]
1. Giving no offense or provocation; as an inoffensive man; an inoffensive answer.
2. Giving no uneasiness or disturbance; as an inoffensive appearance or sight.
3. Harmless; doing no injury or mischief.
Thy inoffensive satires never bite.
4. Not obstructing; presenting no hinderance.
--From hence a passage broad,
Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to hell.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not causing anger or annoyance; "inoffensive behavior" [syn: inoffensive, unoffending] [ant: offensive]
2: giving no offense; "a quiet inoffensive man"; "a refreshing inoffensive stimulant" [ant: offensive]
3: substituting a mild term for a harsher or distasteful one; "`peepee' is a common euphemistic term" [syn: euphemistic, inoffensive] [ant: dysphemistic, offensive]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1646 1. causing no harm or injury 2. a. giving no provocation ; peaceable b. not objectionable to the senses • inoffensively adverb • inoffensiveness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. not objectionable; harmless. Derivatives: inoffensively adv. inoffensiveness n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Inoffensive In"of*fen"sive, a. [Pref. in- not + offensiue: cf. F. inoffensif.] 1. Giving no offense, or provocation; causing no uneasiness, annoyance, or disturbance; as, an inoffensive man, answer, appearance. 2. Harmless; doing no injury or mischief. --Dryden. 3. Not obstructing; presenting no interruption bindrance. [R.] --Milton. So have Iseen a river gintly glide In a smooth course, and inoffensive tide. --Addison. -- In"of*fen"sive*ly, adv. -- In"of*fen"sive*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you describe someone or something as inoffensive, you mean that they are not unpleasant or unacceptable in any way, but are perhaps rather dull. He's a mild inoffensive man... ? offensive ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Harmless, unoffending, innocuous, innoxious, innocent.

Moby Thesaurus

admissible, allowable, benign, condonable, defensible, dispensable, excusable, exemptible, expiable, forgivable, harmless, innocent, innocuous, justifiable, legitimate, nonmalignant, nonpoisonous, nontoxic, nonvirulent, pardonable, reasonable, remissible, undamaging, unhurtful, uninjurious, unobjectionable, unobnoxious, unoffending, venial, vindicable, warrantable