Word.ws English Dictionary

reopens old wounds

reopens old wounds is the third-person singular simple present indicative of reopen old wounds.

Meaning of reopen old wounds

Verb

reopen old wounds (third-person singular simple present reopens old wounds, present participle reopening old wounds, simple past and past participle reopened old wounds)

  1. (idiomatic) To cause the memory of past trauma to be recalled, resulting in renewed suffering.
    • When I had completed The Difficult Flowering of Surinam in 1976, Fred Ormskirk, the late NPS historian and radio commentator, suggested I delete a number of the more unpleasant stories in the book, claiming that it was better to let go of the past and not reopen old wounds.1994, Edward M. Dew, The trouble in Suriname, 1975-1993, page 202
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see reopen, old, wound.
    • Old wounds and ulcers reopen and ulcerate.1998, Samuel Lilienthal, Homoeopathic Therapeutics, page 941

Questions about reopens old wounds

What is reopens old wounds the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Reopens old wounds is the third-person singular simple present indicative of reopen old wounds.

Words near reopens old wounds in the dictionary

  1. reopeners
  2. reopening
  3. reopening old wounds
  4. reopenings
  5. reopens
  6. reopens old wounds
  7. reoperable
  8. reoperate
  9. reoperated
  10. reoperates
  11. reoperating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reopens old wounds (page history and authors); reopen old wounds (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: “reopens old wounds.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reopens_old_wounds. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.