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Can you be scathed instead of unscathed?
We often hear of a person coming through some difficult circumstance, or dangerous endeavor, and “emerging unscathed,” yet we rarely hear of anyone “emerging scathed.” Why is this? Scathe is a word: it may function as a noun (“harm, injury”) or as a verb (“to do harm to,” “to assail with withering denunciation”). It is not as commonly found as it once was, and now primarily serves as the basis for the adjective scathing (“bitterly severe”) or for the latter portion of unscathed. So you can say that someone “emerged scathed” if you wish, but be advised that it will have a curiously archaic sound to it.
Examples of unscathed in a Sentence
Loveday Morris, Washington Post, 14 Apr. 2024
That said, assuming Ohtani has done nothing wrong, America’s pastime will emerge from this situation mostly unscathed.
—Harry Enten, CNN, 29 Mar. 2024
Granted, some mothers are unscathed by the status quo.
—Kathryn Anne Edwards, The Mercury News, 23 Mar. 2024
Cattle that have survived the blazes relatively unscathed are still suffering, as are their owners, as the fires took out essential resources.
—Li Cohen, CBS News, 7 Mar. 2024
Jake Gyllenhaal did not walk away from filming his new Road House movie unscathed.
—Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 18 Mar. 2024
The former South Carolina governor made it through the state’s challenge filing period unscathed.
—Brittany Carloni, The Indianapolis Star, 16 Feb. 2024
The Associated Press issued a fact-check article about the incident, clarifying that its own reporters had watched Biden walk down the plane’s stairs unscathed.
—Clare Malone, The New Yorker, 25 Jan. 2024
For-profit enrollments up as Biden aims to tighten oversight
Unlike public undergraduate schools, one sector of higher education that emerged from the pandemic relatively unscathed was for-profit colleges.
—Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY, 24 Jan. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unscathed.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Unscathed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unscathed. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
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unscathed
adjective
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