audacity

2 definitions • 3 examples

courage or confidence of a kind that other people find shocking or rude:

[ + to infinitive ] It took a lot of audacity to stand up and criticize the chairman.

disapproving He had the audacity to blame me for his mistake!

unusually strong and esp. rude confidence in yourself:

[ + to infinitive ] Our mayor has the audacity to claim credit for improvements he had nothing to do with.