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scathe

noun
/skeɪð/

Etymology

From Middle English scathen, skathen (“to harm; to cause loss; to assail, attack; to make war on; to defeat”) [and other forms], from Old Norse skaða (“to damage, harm; to hurt, injure”), from Proto-Germanic *skaþōną (“to damage, harm; to injure”) (whence Old English sceaþian, scaþian (“to harm, hurt, injure, scathe”)), from *skaþô (“damage, scathe; one who causes damage, injurer”, noun); see further at etymology 1. Sense 2 (“to harm, injure, or destroy (someone or something) by fire, lightning, or some other heat source”) appears to derive from Paradise Lost by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674), perhaps influenced by scorch: see the 1667 quotation. Cognates * Albanian shkathët (“adept, clever, skilful”) * Danish skade (“to hurt, injure”) * Dutch schaden (“to injure”) * Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌸𐌾𐌰𐌽 (skaþjan, “to harm, injure; to do wrong”) * Ancient Greek ἀσκηθής (askēthḗs, “unhurt”) * Old Frisian skathia (“to injure”) * Old High German skadôn (Middle High German schaden, German schaden (“to damage, harm, hurt; to be harmful”)) * Old Norse skeðja (“to hurt”) * Old Saxon scaðon (“to slander”) * Swedish skada (“to hurt, injure”)

  1. derived from *(s)keh₁t-✻ — “damage, harm”
  2. derived from *skaþô✻ — “damage, scathe; one who causes damage, injurer”
  3. derived from skaði — “damage, harm; loss; death; murder”
  4. inherited from scath

Definitions

  1. Damage, harm, hurt, injury.

    • Therefore great Lords bee as your titles vvitnes, / Imperious, and impatient of your vvrongs, / And vvherein Rome hath done you any ſkath, / Let him make treable ſatisfaction.
    • [S]trong ale and noble cheere / t'aſſwage breeme winters ſcathes.
    • I red ye weel, tak care o' ſkaith, / See there's a gully!

  2. Someone who, or something which, causes harm

    Someone who, or something which, causes harm; an injurer.

    • The pride I trampled is now my scathe, / For it tramples me again.

  3. An injury or loss for which compensation is sought in a lawsuit

    An injury or loss for which compensation is sought in a lawsuit; damage; also, expenses incurred by a claimant; costs.

  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. Something to be mourned or regretted.

    2. To harm or injure (someone or something) physically.

      • This trick may chance to ſcath you I knovv vvhat, / You muſt contrarie me, […]
      • Thir Glory witherd. As when Heavens Fire / Hath ſcath'd the Forreſt Oaks, or Mountain Pines, / With ſinged top their ſtately growth though bare / Stands on the blaſted Heath.
      • Think, wicked Sinner, wha ye're ſkaithing: / It's juſt the Blue-gown badge an' claithing, / O' Saunts; tak that, ye lea'e them naething, / To ken them by, / Frae ony unregenerate Heathen, / Like you or I.

    3. To harm, injure, or destroy (someone or something) by fire, lightning, or some other heat…

      To harm, injure, or destroy (someone or something) by fire, lightning, or some other heat source; to blast; to scorch; to wither.

      • The shout was hushed on lake and fell, / The Monk resumed his muttered spell. / Dismal and low its accents came, / The while he scathed the Cross with flame; […]
      • Hoary, yet haughty, frowns the oak, / Its boughs by weight of ages broke; / And towers erect, in sable spire, / The pine-tree scathed by lightning fire; […]
      • Winter and summer / That wood beeth changeless / Starr'd with rich stores; / Shriveleth never / Leaf under loft / Nor lightning it scatheth, […]

    4. To severely hurt (someone's feelings, soul, etc., or something intangible) through acts,…

      To severely hurt (someone's feelings, soul, etc., or something intangible) through acts, words spoken, etc.

      • There are some strokes of calamity that scathe and scorch the soul—that penetrate to the vital seat of happiness—and blast it, never again to put forth bud or blossom.
      • For the fire-baptised soul, long so scathed and thunder-riven, here feels its own Freedom, which feeling is its Baphometic Baptism: […]

The neighborhood

Derived

ill-scathe, scathand, scathefire, scatheful, scathefulness, scatheless, scathelessly, scathely, scathy, scathed, scathing, unscathed

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for scathe. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA