scar
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English scar, scarre, a conflation of Old French escare (“scab”) (from Late Latin eschara, from Ancient Greek ἐσχάρα (eskhára, “scab left from a burn”), and thus a doublet of eschar) and Middle English skar (“incision, cut, fissure”) (from Old Norse skarð (“notch, chink, gap”), from Proto-Germanic *skardaz (“gap, cut, fragment”)). Akin to Old Norse skor (“notch, score”), Old English sċeard (“gap, cut, notch”). More at shard.
Displaced native Old English dolg, dolgswæþ, and wundswaþu (“scar”). Not related to scarify.
Inflected forms:
form: scars
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: scars
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: scarring
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: scarred
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: scarred
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A permanent mark on the skin, sometimes caused by the healing of a wound.
pos: noun
gloss: A permanent negative effect on someone's mind, caused by a traumatic experience.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: Thus, it is wise to avoid cultivating an emotional scar, as it can play havoc with your happiness and success.
gloss: Any permanent mark resulting from damage.
pos: noun
examples: Her age-old weapons, flood and fire, left scars on the canyon which time will never efface.
But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.
You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, “you are free to compete with all the others,” and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.
Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates.
There is a real scar on the landscape, but it reminds me exactly of scenes I photographed from the construction of High Speed 1 in Kent and Essex, and of the Norton Bridge flyover in Staffordshire. Scars heal, and the replanting and rewilding that Penny had shown me at Cubbington display the early stages.
gloss: To mark the skin permanently.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Yet I'll not shed her blood; / Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow.
gloss: To form a scar.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Iron and coal were the magnets that drew railways to this land of lovely valleys and silent mountains—for such it was a century-and-a-half ago, before man blackened the valleys with the smoke of his forges, scarred the green hills with his shafts and waste-heaps, and drove the salmon from the quiet Rhondda and the murmuring Taff.
And black skin scars badly. Whatʼs left behind stays pink and angry, always.
gloss: To affect deeply in a traumatic manner.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Seeing his parents die in a car crash scarred him for life.
Synonyms: cicatrice
cicatrix
Related words: birthmark
Derived words: fire scar
labelscar
leaf scar
Red Scar
scarface
scarless
scarlike
scar limestone
scarproof
scarry
scar tissue
scar tree
top scar
trial of scar
battle-scarred
nonscarring
scarrer
scarringly
Translations: