Other forms: transgressed, transgressing, transgresses
To transgress is to go beyond what a law or a rule allows. Transgress the rules, transgress a boundary, those who transgress.
It carries a moral or religious weight that break does not, which is why it belongs to commandments and codes. The Latin means to step across, and the image of a line crossed is still in every use.
1verbtransgressTo go beyond what a law or a rule allows.
“Those who transgress the rules of the monastery must leave.”
transgress is a breaking.
Latin transgredi means to step across, from trans plus gradi, to step.
Latin
transgressus
Old French
transgresser
Middle English
transgressen
English, today
transgress
From Middle English transgressen, from Old French transgresser and Latin transgressus, past participle of transgredior.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA