— flagrancy, flagrance, flagrantness , n. — flagrantly , adv.
/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 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.