Standard Lemma guide

scathe

noun · verb · 9 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /skeɪð/
  • /skeɪθ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -eɪð
  • rhymes with -eɪθ
  • General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /skeɪð/

1

noun

Meaning 1

Damage, harm, hurt, injury.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, archaic, countable, dialectal, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Someone who, or something which, causes harm; an injurer.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, archaic, countable, dialectal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: harmer

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

An injury or loss for which compensation is sought in a lawsuit; damage; also, expenses incurred by a claimant; costs.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, archaic, countable, dialectal, obsolete

Qualifier: Scots law

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Something to be mourned or regretted.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, archaic, dialectal, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

verb

Meaning 5

To harm or injure (someone or something) physically.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: damage, wound, abuse, annoy, bewound, damnify, dere, do damage to, do for, do ill, do violence to, forwork, grieve, harm, harrow, hurt, injure, maul, mayhem, misdo, put someone in hospital, scaith, scathe, vulnerate, wet

Antonyms: none provided

6

verb

Meaning 6

To harm or injure (someone or something) physically.

To cause monetary loss to (someone).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal, obsolete, specifically, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: damage, wound, abuse, annoy, bewound, damnify, dere, do damage to, do for, do ill, do violence to, forwork, grieve, harm, harrow, hurt, injure, maul, mayhem, misdo, put someone in hospital, scaith, scathe, vulnerate, wet

Antonyms: none provided

7

verb

Meaning 7

To harm, injure, or destroy (someone or something) by fire, lightning, or some other heat source; to blast; to scorch; to wither.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, archaic, broadly, dialectal, literary, poetic, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: burn, forsweal, incinerate, singe, torch, burn away, burn down, burn up, burn to a crisp, char up, cinder, cremate, forburn, scathe

Antonyms: none provided

8

verb

Meaning 8

To severely hurt (someone's feelings, soul, etc., or something intangible) through acts, words spoken, etc.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, archaic, dialectal, figuratively, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: affront, wound, abuse, burn, carry, cut down, disrespect, dis, diss, give stick, heckle, hurt someone's feelings, insult, lapidate, qualifier, misbid, misrespect, misuse, offend, send, scandal, scandalize, slag, slag off, sledge, slight, slur, sneap, spite

Antonyms: none provided

9

noun

Meaning 9

the act of damaging something or someone

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: damage, harm, hurt

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: change of integrity

Narrower terms: impairment, defacement, disfigurement, disfiguration, wound, wounding, burn, defloration

History

Etymology

From Middle English scath, scathe [and other forms], from Old Norse skaði (“damage, harm; loss; death; murder”), from Proto-Germanic *skaþô (“damage, scathe; one who causes damage, injurer”, noun) (whence Old English sċeaþa, sċeaþu (“scathe, harm, injury”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keh1t- (“damage, harm”). Cognate with German Schaden (“damage, harm”). cognates * Scots skaith * Dutch schade * German schaden * Norwegian skade * Swedish skada * Icelandic skaði * Polish szkoda * Russian шко́да (škóda) * Belarusian шко́дa (škóda) * Ukrainian шко́да (škóda)

From Middle English scathen, skathen (“to harm; to cause loss; to assail, attack; to make war on; to defeat”) [and other forms], from Old Norse skaða (“to damage, harm; to hurt, injure”), from Proto-Germanic *skaþōną (“to damage, harm; to injure”) (whence Old English sceaþian, scaþian (“to harm, hurt, injure, scathe”)), from *skaþô (“damage, scathe; one who causes damage, injurer”, noun); see further at etymology 1. Sense 2 (“to harm, injure, or destroy (someone or something) by fire, lightning, or some other heat source”) appears to derive from Paradise Lost by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674), perhaps influenced by scorch: see the 1667 quotation. Cognates * Albanian shkathët (“adept, clever, skilful”) * Danish skade (“to hurt, injure”) * Dutch schaden (“to injure”) * Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌸𐌾𐌰𐌽 (skaþjan, “to harm, injure; to do wrong”) * Ancient Greek ἀσκηθής (askēthḗs, “unhurt”) * Old Frisian skathia (“to injure”) * Old High German skadôn (Middle High German schaden, German schaden (“to damage, harm, hurt; to be harmful”)) * Old Norse skeðja (“to hurt”) * Old Saxon scaðon (“to slander”) * Swedish skada (“to hurt, injure”)

Across languages

Translations

28 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: dany — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Catalan: estrall — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Catalan: mal — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Danish: skade — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Dutch: schade — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • German: Schaden — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Latin: damnum — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Malayalam: ക്ഷതം (kṣataṁ) — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Polish: szkoda — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Polish: uszczerbek — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Russian: вред (vred) — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Russian: уще́рб (uščérb) — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Spanish: daño — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Spanish: herida — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Spanish: infortunio — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Swedish: skada — damage; harm; hurt; injury
  • Danish: skade — to harm or injure (someone or something) physically
  • Dutch: schaden — to harm or injure (someone or something) physically
  • Finnish: vahingoittaa — to harm or injure (someone or something) physically
  • Italian: ferire — to harm or injure (someone or something) physically
  • Malayalam: ക്ഷതപ്പെടുത്തുക (kṣatappeṭuttuka) — to harm or injure (someone or something) physically
  • Persian: شخودن (šexudan) — to harm or injure (someone or something) physically
  • Portuguese: ferir — to harm or injure (someone or something) physically
  • Russian: причиня́ть вред (pričinjátʹ vred) — to harm or injure (someone or something) physically
  • Spanish: herir — to harm or injure (someone or something) physically
  • Swedish: skada — to harm or injure (someone or something) physically
  • German: verletzen — to severely hurt (someone’s feelings, soul, etc., or something intangible) through acts, words spoken, etc.
  • Spanish: zaherir — to severely hurt (someone’s feelings, soul, etc., or something intangible) through acts, words spoken, etc.