wound

Noun from Middle English wund, from Old English wund, from Proto-Germanic *wundō. Verb from Middle English wunden, from Old English wundian, from Proto-Germanic *wundōną.

• (UK) enPR: wo͞ond, IPA^(key): /wuːnd/
  • (MLE) IPA^(key): /wyːnd/
• (US) enPR: wo͞ond, IPA^(key): /wund/
• (obsolete) enPR: wound, IPA^(key): /waʊnd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːnd

wound (plural wounds)

1. An injury, such as a cut, stab, or tear, to a (usually external) part of the body.
   • 2013 September 1, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 1-0 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:

     The visitors were without Wayne Rooney after he suffered a head wound in training, which also keeps him out of England's World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine.

   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act 3, scene 3]:

     Showers of blood / Rained from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen.

   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     I went below, and did what I could for my wound; it pained me a good deal, and still bled freely; but it was neither deep nor dangerous, nor did it greatly gall me when I used my arm.

2. (figuratively) A hurt to a person's feelings, reputation, prospects, etc.

   It took a long time to get over the wound of that insult.

3. (criminal law) An injury to a person by which the skin is divided or its continuity broken.

• (injury): injury, lesion
• (something that offends a person's feelings): slight, slur, insult
• See also Thesaurus:injury

wound (third-person singular simple present wounds, present participle wounding, simple past and past participle wounded)

1. (transitive) To hurt or injure (someone) by cutting, piercing, or tearing the skin.

   The police officer wounded the suspect during the fight that ensued.

2. (transitive) To hurt (a person's feelings).

   The actor's pride was wounded when the leading role went to his rival.

   • 1984 December 8, Michael Bronski, Andrea Loewenstein, “Family & Friends: Writers Talk Community”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 21, page 12:

     I find neglect or rejection from my own community much harder to take and more wounding than the same thing or worse from the outside world.

• In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use, and verbs used -est for distinct second-person singular indicative forms, the verb wound had the form woundest, and had woundedst for its past tense.
• Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present indicative forms, the form woundeth was used.

• (injure): See Thesaurus:harm
• (hurt (feelings)): See Thesaurus:offend

See wind (Etymology 2)

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /waʊnd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊnd

wound

1. simple past and past participle of wind
   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Fate of the Artemis”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     “ […] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned, and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck ; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared. […]”

• drum-wound
• flat-wound
• round-wound
• series-wound
• wound rotor
• wound-up