ouch

Pluralouches

Formsouches, ouching, ouched

1. 1
   interjection

   A cry uttered in reaction to one's own sudden physical pain.

   Ouch! That pin just jabbed straight into my thumb.

   Ouch, my ankle twisted hard when I landed off the curb.

   Similarow

   Note

   The cry the other senses grow from, and probably an American one. Its origin is uncertain, but it is first recorded in 1838 and is often traced to German autsch, perhaps by way of Pennsylvania German outch, 'cry of pain', since the early uses come from Pennsylvania. On the page it takes an exclamation point or a comma before the complaint: Ouch! or Ouch, my ankle.

2. 2
   interjection

   A cry used to show sympathy when someone else is hurt.

   Ouch, that tackle looked like it really knocked the wind out of him.

   Ouch. Watching you trip down the stairs made me wince.

   Similaroof, yikes

3. 3
   interjection

   A response to a cutting insult, often given in a teasing or joking spirit.

   Ouch, calling my poem 'word salad' was a little harsh.

   Ouch! Fine, I admit my parking could use some work.

4. 4
   interjection

   A cry expressing disappointment at an unwelcome turn of events.

   Ouch, the gallery rejected my submission for the third year running.

   Ouch, our flight got canceled the night before the wedding.

5. 5
   interjectionslang

   A cry expressing surprise or dismay at how expensive something is.

   Ouch, three hundred dollars just to fill the tank these days.

   Ouch! The new phone costs more than a month of my rent.

   Similaryikes

   Note

   Here the hurt is financial: the speaker feels no sting, only the shock of a price heard or seen. It is slang, at home in conversation and out of place in a formal complaint or a business letter. It usually comes first, with the price spelled out after it, much as the cry of real pain comes before the injury is named.

6. 6
   nouncolloquialcountable

   A thing that brings about pain or discomfort.

   The sudden rent increase was a serious ouch for everyone in the building.

   Getting cut from the final roster was an ouch she took a while to shake off.

   Similarblow

   Note

   A playful noun made from the cry, and happiest in the plural: a 1986 RhuliGel advertisement promised to soothe 'the itches and ouches of summer'. That rhyming pairing shows its tone, which is light and suited to minor hurts and ad copy. It takes the regular plural ouches, and ooch serves as a synonym.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   To cry out 'ouch' in reaction to discomfort or pain.

   Patients often ouch involuntarily the moment the needle goes in.

   He ouched and yanked his hand back from the boiling kettle.

   Similaryelp

   Note

   A verb made straight from the cry: to ouch is to say it. It is intransitive and regular (ouches, ouching, ouched), and it pairs naturally with out loud, as in the poem 'Mousie Mousie Wildflower' in Gay Community News (1984): 'I ouch out loud and clear.'

8. 8
   nounliterary

   Alternative form of ouche.

   A ruby ouch glittered at the throat of her gown.

   He pinned a heavy gold ouch to the shoulder of his cape.

   Note

   A different word altogether that happens to share the cry's spelling: a jeweled brooch or clasp for fastening clothing, a variant of ouche. It belongs to historical and poetic writing, so a ruby ouch at a gown's throat reads as period language, not as a cry. Its plural, ouches, collides with the playful noun for hurts, so context does the sorting.

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