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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
Andrea Margolis, Fox News, 13 Feb. 2025
The losses were so devastating that they are being shunted to people more than 500 miles away who were otherwise unscathed.
—Ben Berkowitz, Axios, 12 Feb. 2025
The Tacoma’s exterior plastic was melted and its front bumper reduced to fragments, but the truck’s engine bay remained largely unscathed.
—David Caraccio, Sacramento Bee, 29 Jan. 2025
California How did a cluster of homes near the Eaton fire’s ignition point emerge unscathed?
Jan. 17, 2025
More to Read
Western Altadena got evacuation order many hours after Eaton fire exploded.
—Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unscathed
Cite this Entry
“Unscathed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unscathed. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
unscathed
adjective
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