- flagrant
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/flay"greuhnt/, adj.1. shockingly noticeable or evident; obvious; glaring: a flagrant error.2. notorious; scandalous: a flagrant crime; a flagrant offender.3. Archaic. blazing, burning, or glowing.[1400-50; late ME < L flagrant- (s. of flagrans), prp. of flagrare to burn; see -ANT]Syn. 2. disgraceful, monstrous, egregious. FLAGRANT, GLARING, GROSS, OUTRAGEOUS, RANK are adjectives suggesting extreme offensiveness. FLAGRANT, with a root sense of flaming or flaring, suggests evil or immorality so evident that it cannot be ignored or overlooked: a flagrant violation of the law. GLARING, meaning "shining brightly," is similar to FLAGRANT in emphasizing conspicuousness but usually lacks the imputation of immorality: a glaring error in computing the interest. GROSS, which basically signifies excessive size, is even more negative in implication than the foregoing two terms, suggesting a mistake or impropriety of major proportions: a gross miscarriage of justice.OUTRAGEOUS describes acts so far beyond the limits of decent behavior or accepted standards as to be totally insupportable: an outrageous abuse of the public trust. RANK, with its suggestion of bad odor, describes open offensiveness of the most objectionable kind, inviting total and unalloyed disapprobation: rank dishonesty, stinking to high heaven; Only rank stupidity would countenance such a step.
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Universalium. 2010.