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. Indo-European cognates include Albanian unë (“piece of a broken pot, splinter”).

• (UK) enPR: wo͞ond, IPA^(key): /wuːnd/
• (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, Phil McNulty, "Liverpool 1-0 Man Utd", BBC Sport, 1 September 2013:

     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 Shakespeare, "Wales. Before Flint castle", King Richard the Second.

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

   • 1883: Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

     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.

• (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 tense and past participle of wind
   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 1, in The Fate of the Artemis‎:

     “[…] 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. […]”