Link Centre Dictionary

bruise

UK/bɹuːz/ US/bɹʉwz/ fairly common

verb

1.

injure the underlying soft tissue of bone of

  • “I bruised my knee”
Synonyms
2.

hurt the feelings of

  • “She hurt me when she did not include me among her guests”
  • “This remark really bruised me ego”
3.

break up into small pieces for food preparation

  • “bruise the berries with a wooden spoon and strain them”
4.

damage (plant tissue) by abrasion of pressure

  • “The customer bruised the strawberries by squeezing them”

noun

1.

an injury that doesn''t break the skin but results in some discoloration

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English bruisen, brusen, brosen, brisen, bresen, from a merger two words, both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrews- (“to break”): * Old English brȳsan, brīesan (“to bruise; crush”), from Proto-Germanic *brausijaną, *brūsijaną (“to break; crumble; crack”). Provided the word's sense. * Anglo-Norman bruiser, bruser (“to break, smash, shatter”), from Gaulish *brus-, from Proto-Celtic *bruseti (“to break”). Provided the word's form. Cognate with Scots brizz, German brausen (“to roar; boom; pound”), Old English brosnian (“to crumble, fall apart”), Dutch broos (“brittle”), German Brosame (“crumb”), dialectal Norwegian brøysk (“breakable”), Latin frustum (“bit, scrap”), Old Church Slavonic бръснути (brŭsnuti, “to rake”), Albanian breshër (“hail”).

Phrases

  • bruise up

Related words

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.