scathe

American  

[skeyth] / skeɪð /

verb (used with object)

scathed, scathing

1. to attack with severe criticism.

2. to hurt, harm, or injure, as by scorching.

---

noun

1. hurt, harm, or injury.

scathe British  

/ skeɪð /

verb

1. rare to attack with severe criticism

2. archaic to injure

---

noun

1. archaic harm

Other Word Forms

• scatheless adjective
• scathelessly adverb

Etymology

Origin of scathe

before 1000; (noun) Middle English scath ( e ), scade, schath ( e ) < Old Norse skathi damage, harm, cognate with Old English sc ( e ) atha malefactor, injury (with which the Middle English forms with sch- might be identified); (v.) Middle English scath ( e ), skath ( e ) < Old Norse skatha, cognate with Old English sceathian

Example Sentences

I suggest an ibid of historians, a ponder of scientists, a scathe of bureaucrats.

From Time Magazine Archive

So great was the scathe done that day that Tristrem and Ganhardin were forced once more to fly to Brittany, where in an adventure Tristrem received an arrow in his old wound.

From Legends & Romances of Brittany by Spence, Lewis

How the tall old pines, withered by the biting scathe of Eld, rise to the view, afar and near; white shafts, bottomed in darkness, and standing like the serried spears of an innumerable army!

From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, June 1844 Volume 23, Number 6 by Clark, Lewis Gaylord

Hence, and make speed: they scathe mine eyes like fire: Pompeius, thou hast conquered!

From Legends of the Saxon Saints by De Vere, Aubrey

All these, and the brig herself, I had outlived; and come through these hardships and fearful perils without scathe.

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 10 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis