harm

Physical injury; hurt; damage.

Noun

  1. Physical injury; hurt; damage.
    • No harm came to my possessions.
    • You can do a lot of harm to someone if you kick them in the teeth.
  2. Emotional or figurative hurt.
    • Although not physically injured in the car accident, she received some psychological harm.
    • And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted...
  3. Detriment; misfortune.
    • I wish him no harm.
  4. That which causes injury, damage, or loss.
    • We, ignorant of ourselves, / Beg often our own harms. - c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...

Origin

From Middle English harm, herm, from Old English hearm, from Proto-West Germanic *harm, from Proto-Germanic *harmaz (“harm; shame; pain”). Cognate with Dutch harm (“harm”), German Harm (“harm”), Danish harme (“indignation, resentment”), Icelandic harmur (“sorrow, grief”), Swedish harm (“anger, indignation, harm”).

Forms

harms harme

Verb

  1. To damage, hurt, or injure something, usually an inanimate object.
    • Will justice and conscience of society not be harmed if people avoid the truth? - 2020 December 16, Yan Ming, “Awakening Moral Conscience”, in Minghui:

Forms

harms harming harmed harme

Synonyms

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

Antonyms

heal repair

Hypernyms

do evil inflict

Hyponyms

bruise burn contuse cut deface disable do draw blood elt kill reinjure run down scotch scrape scratch stab tear vuln wing wrench wring

Related

injury harmful

Derived

harmable harmdoing harmer harmful harmless harmproof nonharm self-harm unharmed actual bodily harm do more harm than good do no harm grievous bodily harm harm a fly harm a hair on someone's head harm principle harm reduction harm's way no harm done number needed to harm repeated bodily harm wouldn't harm a fly