hurt
Noun pluralhurts
Pluralhurts
- 1To cause physical pain or injury to a person or an animal.
The fall hurt his knee badly, and he limped for a week.
The boxer hit hard enough to hurt, even through the heavy gloves.
UsageThe past forms are also hurt: it hurt, has hurt (not
incorrect: hurted).Similarinjure, wound, harm, damage, maul
Oppositeheal
- 2To damage, harm, or impair something; to undermine or impede its progress.
The scandal hurt the senator's chances of reelection.
A weak quarter won't hurt if annual sales stay strong.
UsageCommon in it wouldn't hurt to + verb, a polite way to suggest something.
Similarharm, impair, damage, hinder, impede
Oppositehelp, benefit, boost, aid
Note
Pain drops out and only damage remains: a gaffe hurts reelection prospects, and duplicated code hurts maintainability. The Wycliffite Bible (c. 1382–1395) spells the word hirt. Whoever overcomes, it promises, 'schal not be hirt of the secounde deth.'
- 3To be painful; to give a sensation of pain, as an injured or strained body part does.
Fresh stitches hurt whenever the patient coughs or laughs.
His shoulder still hurts when he reaches overhead.
UsageThe sore part is the subject: my feet hurt, does your leg hurt?
Note
Here the sore part becomes the subject: does your leg still hurt? Nothing is being done to anyone. Something simply is painful, which is why ache and smart sit beside it. Compare the causing sense, where a fall or a needle does the hurting.
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7Emotional or psychological pain or distress, especially that caused by a bad experience or unkind treatment; also, an instance of this.
Years of old hurt surfaced when she returned to her hometown.
He spoke openly about the hurt of being passed over for promotion.
UsageOften the hurt of something, or old hurts for past grievances.
Similarhumiliation, mortification
Note
As a mass noun, hurt accumulates over time: 'Thirty years of hurt / Never stopped me dreaming,' runs 'Three Lions' (1996), by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds. As a count noun, it comes as separate grievances, often old ones, as in old hurts of the past. Either way it names an injury to feeling. Injury to the body is the job of the archaic 'wound' noun.
Less common meanings
- 8A bodily injury, wound, or bruise; more generally, damage or harm.
I have received a hurt.
c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”The cause is a temperate conglutination ; for both bodies are clammy and viscous , and do bridle the deflux of humours to the hurts , without penning them in too much
1627, Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century.”Note
A noun of older prose and verse, where a wound is something one receives. Shakespeare's King Lear has 'I have received a hurt.' Francis Bacon and John Locke both write of hurts in the plural as ordinary bodily injuries. Today the word sounds deliberately old and suits historical fiction. In plain modern writing, injury or wound carries the meaning without the period color.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- 'I have received a hurt' occurs in Shakespeare's King Lear, spoken by Cornwall in Act 3, Scene 7. shakespeare.mit.edu
- Francis Bacon uses the plural 'hurts' for bodily injuries. en.wiktionary.org
- John Locke uses the plural 'hurts' for bodily injuries. en.wiktionary.org
- 9A roundel azure; a solid blue circular figure borne as a charge on a coat of arms.
- 10A band on the helve of a trip hammer, bearing the trunnions on which the hammer pivots.
- 11A husk; the dry outer covering of a seed, grain, or nut.
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Practice
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Origin
Middle English hurten ("to injure, scathe, knock together") came from Old Northern French hurter, meaning "to strike, ram into, collide with," the source of Modern French heurter. Where the French word came from is uncertain. One idea is that it is perhaps from Frankish *hūrt, a word for a battering ram, a relative of Welsh hwrdd ("ram"). Because the verb turns up in Middle English as early as in French, it may instead continue an unrecorded Old English *hyrtan that later blended with the French verb. Another view links the French word to Old Norse hrútr ("ram"), which would make it kin to English hart.