wrongs

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of wrong.

   No apology could undo the wrongs of those years.

   The tribunal was set up to investigate historical wrongs against the community.

   Note

   Only the countable meaning of the noun takes a plural. Wrongs are particular acts of injustice. They are not the abstract opposite of right, and not the losing side of an argument, so nobody is "in the wrongs." The usual verbs are right and redress, and a possessive can name who did them: his wrongs against her family. The plural is at home in moral, legal and historical writing.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of wrong.

   A judge who ignores the evidence wrongs everyone who comes before the court.

   Whoever spreads that rumor wrongs an innocent man.

   Note

   The verb is always transitive, and its object is the person harmed, not the harm itself: a judge wrongs the litigants. It can mean treating someone unjustly, withholding what is due to them, or slandering them. The same spelling serves as the plural noun. When an object follows directly (wrongs an innocent man), it is the verb. After the or her (her wrongs), it is the noun.

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