Word.ws English Dictionary

contused

contused is the simple past and past participle of contuse.

Meaning of contuse

Verb

contuse (third-person singular simple present contuses, present participle contusing, simple past and past participle contused)

  1. (transitive) To injure without breaking the skin; to bruise.
    • How many uteruses, vaginas and perineums, suppose you, would we have to contuse and lacerate before we acquired the amount of skill and dexterity to which the gentlemen who advocate the forceps have attained?1869, St Louis Medical Society, The Medical Archives, volume III

Adjective

contused (comparative more contused, superlative most contused)

  1. That has suffered contusion; that has been contused.
    • [E]re Sun-riſe, his [Khusrau Mirza's] afflicted vvife (Cavvn Azems daughter) goes to viſit him; vvhere finding him ſpeechleſſe, and (by his contus'd face) murdered; never did poore vvretch ſhed more teares, or ſhevv more paſſion; by tearing her faire hayre, deforming her ſvveet face ſo fiercely, ſo...1638, Tho[mas] Herbert, Some Yeares Travels Into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique. […], 2nd edition, London: […] R[ichard] Bi[sho]p for Iacob Blome and Richard Bishop, →OCLC, book I, page 80
    • Bradly could see the livid mark of scars on the close-cropped sandy skull. They were recent, and still showed contused edges[.]1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 21
    Synonyms:
    contusioned

Synonyms of contused

Forms of contused

comparativemore contused
superlativemost contused

Words formed from contused

Questions about contused

What does contused mean?
Contused means that has suffered contusion; that has been contused.
What is contused the simple past and past participle of?
Contused is the simple past and past participle of contuse.
What part of speech is contused?
Contused is an adjective.

Words near contused in the dictionary

  1. conturbations
  2. conturbed
  3. conturbing
  4. conturbs
  5. contuse
  6. contused
  7. contuses
  8. contusing
  9. contusion
  10. contusional
  11. contusioned

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: contused (page history and authors); contuse (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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Cite this entry: “contused.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/contused. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.