Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To cause physical damage or pain to; injure.
- v. To cause mental or emotional suffering to; distress.
- v. To cause physical damage to; harm: The frost hurt the orange crop.
- v. To be detrimental to; hinder or impair: The scandal hurt the candidate's chances for victory.
- v. To have or produce a feeling of physical pain or discomfort: My leg hurts.
- v. To cause distress or damage: Parental neglect hurts.
- v. To have an adverse effect: "It never hurt to have a friend at court” ( Tom Clancy).
- v. Informal To experience distress, especially of a financial kind; be in need: "Even in a business that's hurting there's always a guy who can make a buck” ( New York).
- n. Something that hurts; a pain, injury, or wound.
- n. Mental suffering; anguish: getting over the hurt of reading the letter.
- n. A wrong; harm: What hurt have you done to them?
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To knock, hit, or dash against, so as to wound or pain; inflict suffering upon. To injure physically; give physical pain to; wound.
- To give mental pain to; wound or injure in mind or feelings; grieve; distress.
- In general, to do harm or mischief to; affect injuriously; endamage.
- To cause injury, harm, or pain of any kind, mental or physical.
- To rush with violence.
- n. An injury, especially one that gives physical or mental pain, as a wound, bruise, insult, etc.; in general, damage; impairment; detriment; harm.
- n. Synonyms Harm, Mischief, etc. See injury.
- n. The huckleberry, particularly Vaccinium Myrtillus.
- n. In heraldry, a roundel azure, representing the huckleberry.
- n. Contracted third person singular indicative present for hurteth.
Wiktionary
- v. To be painful.
- v. To cause (a creature) physical pain and/or injury.
- v. To cause (somebody) emotional pain.
- adj. Wounded, physically injured.
- adj. Pained.
- n. A wound or pain.
- n. A roundel azure (blue circular spot).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A band on a trip-hammer helve, bearing the trunnions.
- n. A husk. See husk, 2.
- v. To cause physical pain to; to do bodily harm to; to wound or bruise painfully.
- v. To impar the value, usefulness, beauty, or pleasure of; to damage; to injure; to harm.
- v. To wound the feelings of; to cause mental pain to; to offend in honor or self-respect; to annoy; to grieve.
WordNet 3.0
- v. cause emotional anguish or make miserable
- adj. damaged inanimate objects or their value
- v. give trouble or pain to
- adj. suffering from physical injury especially that suffered in battle
- n. psychological suffering
- n. feelings of mental or physical pain
- n. the act of damaging something or someone
- v. feel pain or be in pain
- v. be the source of pain
- n. a damage or loss
- v. feel physical pain
- n. any physical damage to the body caused by violence or accident or fracture etc.
- v. cause damage or affect negatively
- v. hurt the feelings of
Etymologies
- Middle English hurten, possibly from Old French hurter, to bang into, perhaps of Germanic origin.
Examples
“Thus, it would be a very holy thing and work for Valencia to build a hostel or hospital where such insane or innocent persons could be housed so that they would not be wandering through the city and could not hurt nor be hurt».”
Father Joan-Gilabert Jofré and Nuestra Señora de los locos e inocentes
“I wonder if ive hurt pple and stuff or how many pple exactly have I hurt ”
“Dyak's house was in bad repair, and a Malay fell in consequence and was hurt, or pretended to be hurt, a fine was imposed; if a Malay in the jungle was wounded by the springs set for a wild boar, or by the wooden spikes which the Dyaks for protection put about their village, or scratched himself and said he was injured, the penalty was heavy; if the Malay was _really hurt_, ever so accidentally, it was the ruin of the Dyak.”
The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido For the Suppression of Piracy
“(their _relative_ hurt, we mean, for in the end, and at the last, no soul is ever really _hurt_).”
“Fancy words don’t do much to disguise that thestatement ‘if you see a man in a dark parking lot and think he’s going to hurt you, you’re more likely to get hurt is nothing but victim blaming.”
“Had the label hurt the party or the president, a questioner wanted to know.”
The Huffington Post: Kaine: Socialist Taunts Hurt Tea Party More Than Obama
“Both times he said the word hurt he lingered on it, almost making it into two syllables.”
“It isn't the money," he told her, "The main hurt comes from the wanton despoiling of so much beauty.”
“The main hurt comes from the wanton despoiling of so much beauty.”
“But the hurt is a different one than carrying to term and giving a way a baby, as you note.”
Abortion Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry | Her Bad Mother
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hurt’.
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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 137 more...
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RBC: Adjectives for Henry's Ma
Our class list of adjectives for Henry's Ma.
determined, cautious, disappointed, uncertain, wise, stubborn, passionate, unsupportive, forgiving, firm, honest, dishonest and 36 more...
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words about piercings
needles, metal, piercing, tongue, surface, nape, ears, mouth, industrial, nose, tragus, webbing and 11 more...

seanahan I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel. Oct 9, 2007