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were smarting
  • past progressive of smart.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Croatia were smarting from Thursday's shock home defeat by Turkey and depleted by injuries to the likes of Ivan Perisic, Bruno Petkovic and Andre Kramaric.

From BBC • Oct. 15, 2023

But when they boarded the plane back to Washington, the Wizards were smarting over a sloppy performance in Denver that resulted in a 105-102 loss to the depleted Nuggets.

From Washington Post • Mar. 23, 2014

Chanel’s owners, the Wertheimer brothers, were smarting from losing out on the purchase of first growth Chateau Latour to billionaire Francois Pinault when they settled on restoring Rauzan-Segla back to its glory days.

From BusinessWeek • Feb. 6, 2012

I've got a proud group of lads who were smarting a bit.

From The Guardian • Sep. 23, 2010

My eyes were smarting from all the smoke.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt