Word.ws English Dictionary

bruise

UK/bɹuːz/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/bɹʉwz/

bruise verb: to strike (a person), originally with something flat or heavy, but now specifically in such a way as to discolour the skin without breaking it; to contuse.

bruise: to strike (a person), originally with something flat or heavy, but now specifically in such a way...
Image: Nherdboi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

bruise (third-person singular simple present bruises, present participle bruising, simple past and past participle bruised)

  1. (transitive) To strike (a person), originally with something flat or heavy, but now specifically in such a way as to discolour the skin without breaking it; to contuse.
    • It is as I have spoken: the testing first, next the bruising, and in the last bout the breaking and killing.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, pages 25–26
  2. (transitive) To damage the skin of (fruit or vegetables), in an analogous way.
  3. (intransitive) Of fruit or vegetables, to gain bruises through being handled roughly.
    • Bananas bruise easily.
  4. (intransitive) To become bruised.
    • I bruise easily.
  5. (intransitive) To fight with the fists; to box.
    • Bruising was considered a fine, manly, old English custom.1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC
  6. (figuratively, transitive) To harm or injure somebody's feelings or self-esteem.
    • Her thoughtless remarks bruised my ego.
    • I was bruised by such wanton criticism.
  7. (transitive) To impair (gin) by shaking rather than stirring.

Noun

bruise (plural bruises)

  1. A purplish mark on the skin due to leakage of blood from capillaries under the surface that have been damaged by a blow.
  2. A dark mark on fruit or vegetables caused by a blow to the surface.

bruise meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

bruise in Hindi

bruise, injury
घात ghāt

bruise in Tamil

கன்றற் காயம், கரிரத்தக்கட்டு, சிராய்ப்பு, நசுக்கு

bruise in Urdu

bruise
نیل nīl

bruise in Bengali

কালশিটে, কালশিরা
More languagesFewer languages
bruise in Malayalam
ചതയുക, ചതയ്ക്കുക
bruise in Kannada
ತರಚುಗಾಯ, ಜಜ್ಜುಗಾಯ, ಮೂಗೇಟು, ನಗ್ಗು
bruise in Punjabi
ਨੀਲ nīl
bruise in Sanskrit
तृणेढि tṛṇeḍhi
bruise in Tagalog
pasâ
bruise in Arabic
كَدَمَ kadama, كَدْمَة kadma, رَضّ raḍḍ, رَضَّة raḍḍa
bruise in Malay
lebam
bruise in Indonesian
bonyok
bruise in Thai
รอยช้ำ, รอยฟกช้ำ

Examples of bruise in a sentence

  • The bruise is from a bad spill he had last week.
  • He noted her extreme tenderness when he touched the bruise on her thigh.
  • Pressing on the bruise produces a dull pain.

All 40 example sentences with bruise

Synonyms of bruise

Forms of bruise

Verb
third-person singular presentbruises
present participlebruising
past participlebruised
pastbruised
alternative form (obsolete)bruize
alternative form (obsolete)brise
Noun
pluralbruises

Past tense of bruise: bruised

Plural of bruise: bruises

Origin of bruise

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”).

Words formed from bruise

Words that rhyme with bruise

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bruise

What does bruise mean?
Bruise means to strike (a person), originally with something flat or heavy, but now specifically in such a way as to discolour the skin without breaking it; to contuse.
What is bruise in Hindi?
Bruise in Hindi is घात (ghāt). See Bruise meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is bruise?
Bruise can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce bruise?
Bruise is pronounced /bɹuːz/ (UK).
What is the past tense of bruise?
The past tense of bruise is bruised.

Words near bruise in the dictionary

  1. Bruinsma
  2. Bruinsmas
  3. bruisability
  4. bruisable
  5. bruisably
  6. bruise
  7. bruise up
  8. bruised
  9. bruised up
  10. bruisedness
  11. bruiseless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bruise (page history and authors); घात (Hindi) (page history and authors); bruise (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); نیل (Urdu) (page history and authors); Bruise (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bruise (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bruise (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਨੀਲ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bruise.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bruise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bruise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.