Definition

1. Noun:

   • An injury to living tissue, especially one involving a cut or break in the skin: A physical injury, often caused by violence or accident.
   • A figurative injury to one's feelings, pride, or reputation: A psychological or emotional hurt.
   • A casualty to military personnel resulting from combat: An injury sustained in war.

2. Verb:

   • To inflict a physical injury on someone or something: To cause a wound.
   • To hurt someone's feelings or pride: To cause emotional pain or offense.

3. Adjective:

   • Put in a coil: This is an archaic or literary past tense and past participle of the verb 'wind' (meaning to twist or coil). It is not related to the injury meaning.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Physical Injury):

  • The nurse cleaned and bandaged the deep wound on his leg.
  • Soldiers were evacuated from the battlefield with severe wounds.

• Noun (Emotional Injury):

  • His harsh criticism left a deep emotional wound.
  • The betrayal was a wound that took years to heal.

• Verb (To inflict physical injury):

  • The shrapnel wounded several civilians.
  • He was wounded in the shoulder during the fight.

• Verb (To hurt feelings):

  • She was deeply wounded by their rejection.
  • His sarcastic remark wounded my pride.

Advanced Usage

• "To lick one's wounds": To retreat and recover after a defeat or a hurtful experience.

  • After losing the election, the candidate went home to lick his wounds.

• "A mortal wound": An injury causing or likely to cause death.

  • The hero suffered a mortal wound while defending the city.

• "To reopen an old wound": To revive a past emotional pain or unpleasant memory.

  • Bringing up that argument only served to reopen old wounds.

Variants and Related Words

• Wounded (adj): Injured, either physically or emotionally.

  • The wounded soldiers were taken to a field hospital.
  • He had a wounded look in his eyes.

• Wounding (adj/n): Causing injury or hurt.

  • His wounding comments were completely unnecessary.

• Wind (v): To twist or coil. The past tense 'wound' is a homograph with a different meaning.

  • She wound the thread around the spool. (This is the verb 'wind' in past tense).

Synonyms

• Injury (n): Harm or damage.
• Laceration (n): A deep cut or tear in skin or flesh.
• Hurt (v/n): To cause pain or distress.
• Offend (v): To cause upset or resentment.
• Trauma (n): A severe emotional shock or physical injury.

Related Phrasal Verbs

(Note: 'Wound' itself is not commonly used in phrasal verb constructions. The related actions are more often expressed with verbs like 'hurt' or 'injure').

Related Idioms

• "Rub salt in the wound": To make a difficult situation even worse for someone.

  • Losing his job was bad enough, but having his car stolen the same day really rubbed salt in the wound.

• "Time heals all wounds": Emotional pain lessens as time passes.

  • She was heartbroken, but time heals all wounds.

Adjective

1. put in a coil

Noun

1. the act of inflicting a wound
2. a figurative injury (to your feelings or pride)
   • he feared that mentioning it might reopen the wound
   • deep in her breast lives the silent wound
   • The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound--that he will never get over it--Robert Frost
3. a casualty to military personnel resulting from combat
4. an injury to living tissue (especially an injury involving a cut or break in the skin)

Verb

1. hurt the feelings of
   • She hurt me when she did not include me among her guests
   • This remark really bruised my ego
2. cause injuries or bodily harm to