inoffensive
adjEtymology From in- + offensive.
1
not offensive
- an inoffensive joke
- [S]he was one of your ſoft ſpoken, canting, whining hypocrites, who with a truly jeſuitical art, could wreſt evil out of the moſt inoffenſive thought, word, look or action; […]1765, Catherine Jemmat, The Memoirs of Mrs. Catherine Jemmat, Daughter of the Late Admiral Yeo, of Plymouth. Written by Herself, 2nd edition, volume I, London: Printed for the author, at Charing-Cross, →OCLC, page 145:
1 more example
- On January 7, 1964, a group of American students at Balboa High School in the Panama Canal Zone set into motion events that soon threatened our relations with Panama and endangered operation of the Panama Canal. It was, on the surface, an inoffensive act: The students raised the American flag in front of the school.1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 180:
2
harmless
- an inoffensive plant
- Synonyms
- innocuous
- Derived terms
- inoffensively, inoffensiveness, inoffensivism, inoffensivity