hurts

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of hurt.

   The bruise on her arm still hurts a week after the fall.

   Constant criticism hurts a child's confidence over time.

   Note

   Among the verb's finite forms, this -s is the only change it shows: hurt serves unchanged for present, past and past participle. It works in two patterns. Transitively, something hurts someone or something (criticism hurts a child's confidence). Intransitively and statively, the sore part is the subject and nothing follows: my back hurts, it hurts when I laugh. That second pattern needs no object, and adding one is a common learner slip.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of hurt.

   She buried her childhood hurts and rarely spoke of them.

   The counselor encouraged them to name the hurts behind their anger.

   Note

   In everyday English the plural usually means emotional wounds: old hurts, childhood hurts, the hurts behind someone's anger. Hurts meaning bodily wounds or general harm belong to archaic writing. A reader of heraldry meets a different meaning: hurts are blue roundels, azure circular spots on a shield. The craft meanings, a band on a trip hammer's helve and a husk, are rare enough that context will always signal them.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2