TRANSGRESS • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Transgress

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/trænzgrˈɛs/ Listen

verb

Transgress v. t. (past & past part. transgressed; pres. part. transgressing)

To pass over or beyond; to surpass. (R.) "Surpassing common faith, transgressing nature's law."

Hence, to overpass, as any prescribed as the limit of duty; to break or violate, as a law, civil or moral. "For man will hearken to his glozing lies, And easily transgress the sole command."

To offend against; to vex. (Obs.) "Why give you peace to this imperate beast That hath so long transgressed you?"

Transgress v. i. To offend against the law; to sin. "Who transgressed in the thing accursed."

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Etymology of 'Transgress'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Transgress" Quotes from Famous Books

... most clear a freebooter doth live in hazard's train; A freebooter's a cavalier that ventures life for gain: But, since King James the Sixth to England went, Ther has been no cause of grief; And he that hath transgress'd since then, Is no Freebooter, but ...

— Minstrelsy of the Scottish border (3rd ed) (1 of 3) • Walter Scott

... be so. I believe it is, if you say so, Grace, but why doesn't she display common sense enough to settle down and obey the rules of the college? She doesn't transgress the study rules, but she is lawless when it comes to the others. Besides, she runs roughshod over traditions, and all that they imply. She—well—" Gertrude ...

— Grace Harlowe's Third Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower

... before treated by any Jewish writer in the "Galut." But I relied on two Rabbinic principles. One is that when it is a question of doing something for a great cause in a critical time, it is permitted to transgress a law. The other is the consciousness that my motives are pure and unselfish. In short, he concludes, I am the man who, when he finds himself in a critical position and cannot teach truth except by suiting one worthy person and scandalizing ten thousand fools, chooses to say the truth for the ...

— A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy • Isaac Husik

... upon the bench; and in the late injunctions, the Bible, and not the decrees of the church, had been held up as the canon of truth. But heresy, though the definition of it was changing, remained a crime; and although the limits of permitted belief were imperceptibly enlarging, to transgress the recognised boundaries was an offence enormous ...

— History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. II. • James Anthony Froude

... all other excellencies are lost in perpetual darkness. It should be a fixed rule, never to violate the dictates of purity either in action, language, or thought. Many imagine it is a matter of small moment what their thoughts may be, so long as in action they do not transgress the requirements of virtue. This, however, is a serious error. The outward action is but the expression of the inward thought. Wicked deeds would never have birth, were they not first prompted by wicked desires. Hence if the young would have their words and deeds ...

— Golden Steps to Respectability, Usefulness and Happiness • John Mather Austin

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