transgress

verb

trans·gress tran(t)s-ˈgres

tranz-

transgressed; transgressing; transgresses

Synonyms of transgress next

intransitive verb

: to violate a command or law : sin

: to go beyond a boundary or limit

transitive verb

: to go beyond limits set or prescribed by : violate

transgress divine law

: to pass beyond or go over (a limit or boundary)

transgressive

tran(t)s-ˈgre-siv

tranz-

adjective

transgressor

tran(t)s-ˈgre-sər

tranz-

noun

Example Sentences

He who transgresses must seek forgiveness. There are legal consequences for companies that transgress the rules.

Recent Examples on the Web Ghosts transgress binaries in all sorts of ways—life and death, presence and absence, comfort and grief. —

Nell Stevens, The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2022 While mythical monsters acted as warnings to women not to transgress society’s restrictive expectations of them as wives and mothers, some women still chose to bend the rules to their own advantage — or disregard them altogether. —

Rachel Ashcroft, Longreads, 17 Sep. 2022 Black Image Center, in a sense, is a way to transgress all of these things. —

Los Angeles Times, 15 June 2022 In fact, his impulse toward disobedience created something of a rut for him in the chaotic mid-Nineties under Boris Yeltsin: when everything is permitted, there is nothing to transgress. —

Jennifer Wilson, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022 Bad teachers are rarely held accountable, but the public school bureaucracy seems to be less tolerant of teachers who transgress against the Democratic-union establishment. —

The Editorial Board, WSJ, 14 Oct. 2021 Revision can be retrospectively kind to artists, especially to those who transgress the societal mores of their day. —

Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, 24 Aug. 2021 Politics, for example, cannot shed light on why employees are willing to transgress and endanger their job security yet may fail to go to the polls and vote. —

Caterina Bulgarella, Forbes, 24 June 2021 Nonetheless, to act violently on the basis of such fictions – and to transgress against the humanity of others for nothing at all – is perhaps the most nihilistic act of them all. —

Ani Kokobobo, The Conversation, 13 Jan. 2021 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'transgress.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Middle French transgresser, from Latin transgressus, past participle of transgredi to step beyond or across, from trans- + gradi to step — more at grade entry 1

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of transgress was in the 15th century

See more words from the same century