WOUND • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Wound

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/waʊnd/ /wund/ Listen

noun

Wound n.

1.

A hurt or injury caused by violence; specifically, a breach of the skin and flesh of an animal, or in the substance of any creature or living thing; a cut, stab, rent, or the like. "Showers of blood Rained from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen."

2.

Fig.: An injury, hurt, damage, detriment, or the like, to feeling, faculty, reputation, etc.

3.

(Criminal Law) An injury to the person by which the skin is divided, or its continuity broken; a lesion of the body, involving some solution of continuity. Note: Walker condemns the pronunciation woond as a "capricious novelty." It is certainly opposed to an important principle of our language, namely, that the Old English long sound written ou, and pronounced like French ou or modern English oo, has regularly changed, when accented, into the diphthongal sound usually written with the same letters ou in modern English, as in ground, hound, round, sound. The use of ou in Old English to represent the sound of modern English oo was borrowed from the French, and replaced the older and Anglo-Saxon spelling with u. It makes no difference whether the word was taken from the French or not, provided it is old enough in English to have suffered this change to what is now the common sound of ou; but words taken from the French at a later time, or influenced by French, may have the French sound.

Wound gall (Zool.), an elongated swollen or tuberous gall on the branches of the grapevine, caused by a small reddish brown weevil (Ampeloglypter sesostris) whose larvae inhabit the galls.

verb

Wound v. t. (past & past part. wounded; pres. part. wounding)

1.

To hurt by violence; to produce a breach, or separation of parts, in, as by a cut, stab, blow, or the like. "The archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers."

2.

To hurt the feelings of; to pain by disrespect, ingratitude, or the like; to cause injury to. "When ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ."

Wound v. Imp. & p. p. of Wind to twist, and Wind to sound by blowing.

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Etymology of 'Wound'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wound" Quotes from Famous Books

... a stretcher," said the surgeon, after a quick look into the livid face. "Lay him down gently there," and kneeling, busied himself with opening a way to the wound. Out over the flats swung the long skirmish line, picturesque in the variety of its undress, Cutler striding vociferous in its wake, while a bugler ran himself out of breath, far to the eastward front, to puff feeble and abortive breath into unresponsive ...

— An Apache Princess - A Tale of the Indian Frontier • Charles King

... the caliph's son. One day she went to purchase a robe, and the seller told her he would charge nothing if she would suffer him to kiss her cheek. Instead of kissing he bit it, and Amine, being asked by her husband how she came by the wound, so shuffled in her answers that he commanded her to be put to death, a sentence he afterwards commuted to scourging. One day she and her sister told the stories of their lives to the caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, when Amin became reconciled to his wife, and the caliph married her half-sister.—Arabian ...

— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1 - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook • The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.

... have in plenty; but did you ever use a hatchet? T.—No, sir. Mr B.—Then I am afraid to let you have one, because it is a very dangerous kind of tool; and if you are not expert in the use of it you may wound yourself severely. But if you will let me know what you want, I, who am more strong and expert, will take the hatchet and cut down the wood for you. "Thank you, sir," said Tommy; "you are very good to me, indeed." And away Harry ...

— The History of Sandford and Merton • Thomas Day

... beheld this splendid beast lying in the deep peat-hag that had hitherto hidden it from view. The stag's last effort had been to clear this gully; but it had only managed to strike the opposite bank with its forefeet when the death-wound did its work, and then the hapless animal had rolled back with its final groan into the position in which they now found it. In a second, Roderick was down in the peat-hag beside it, holding up its head by one of the horns, and ...

— Prince Fortunatus • William Black

... would not say anything to his companion, but that he would watch by him that night, and find out, if he could, what had happened to his other friends. To keep himself awake he cut a piece out of his finger, and rubbed a little salt into the wound, so that when his companion went to sleep, he should not be able to sleep because of the pain. At midnight the goat came and turned into a huge demon. She went quickly up to the sleeping man to swallow him; but the merchant's son rushed at her, beat her, and snatched ...

— Indian Fairy Tales • Anonymous

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