umbrage

[uhm-brij] /ˈʌm brɪdʒ/
noun
1.
offense; annoyance; displeasure:
to feel umbrage at a social snub; to give umbrage to someone; to take umbrage at someone's rudeness.
2.
the slightest indication or vaguest feeling of suspicion, doubt, hostility, or the like.
3.
leaves that afford shade, as the foliage of trees.
4.
shade or shadows, as cast by trees.
5.
a shadowy appearance or semblance of something.
Origin
1400-50; late Middle English < Old French; see umbra, -age
Synonyms
1. pique, grudge, resentment.
Examples from the web for umbrage
  • It is a risky thing to stand against such a near-universal outpouring of moral umbrage.
  • There may be a threshold of debt beyond which bond markets suddenly take umbrage.
  • The projected bands of umbrage climbed the shafts at the same speed that the blades above them turned.
  • One politician the paper interviewed for the story took a bit of umbrage at our inquiries.
  • The laird with the checker board suit took umbrage at the remarks.
British Dictionary definitions for umbrage

umbrage

/ˈʌmbrɪdʒ/
noun
1.
displeasure or resentment; offence (in the phrase give or take umbrage)
2.
the foliage of trees, considered as providing shade
3.
(rare) shadow or shade
4.
(archaic) a shadow or semblance
Word Origin
C15: from Old French umbrage, from Latin umbrāticus relating to shade, from umbra shade, shadow
Word Origin and History for umbrage
n.

early 15c., "shadow, shade," from Middle French ombrage "shade, shadow," from Latin umbraticum, neuter of umbraticus "of or pertaining to shade," from umbra "shade, shadow," from PIE root *andho- "blind, dark" (cf. Sanskrit andha-, Avestan anda- "blind, dark"). Many figurative uses in 17c.; main remaining one is the meaning "suspicion that one has been slighted," first recorded 1610s; hence phrase to take umbrage at, attested from 1670s.