Word.ws English Dictionary

scarring

scarring is the present participle and gerund of scar.

Noun

scarring (countable and uncountable, plural scarrings)

  1. A scar; a mark.
    • We find upon the limestone rocks the scarrings of the ancient glacier which brought the boulder here.1873, John Tyndall, The Forms of Water in Clouds & Rivers, Ice & Glaciers, page 148
    • Head/Ears/Nose/Throat: Examination of the head, ears, nose, and throat revealed no significant abnormalities with the exception of scaring^([sic – meaning scarring]) on the right ear from a gunshot wound. Hearing was normal.[2025 April 13, Sean P. Barbabella, “PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP'S ANNUAL PHYSICAL EXAMINATION RESULTS”, in whitehouse.gov, archived from the original on 13 Apr 2025, Briefings & Statements
  2. The repair of an injury using scar tissue; the construction of scar tissue.

Meaning of scar

Verb

scar (third-person singular simple present scars, present participle scarring, simple past and past participle scarred)

  1. (transitive) To mark the skin permanently.
    • Yet I'll not shed her blood; / Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
  2. (intransitive) To form a scar.
    • Iron and coal were the magnets that drew railways to this land of lovely valleys and silent mountains—for such it was a century-and-a-half ago, before man blackened the valleys with the smoke of his forges, scarred the green hills with his shafts and waste-heaps, and drove the salmon from the quiet...1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 157
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To affect deeply in a traumatic manner.
    • Seeing his parents die in a car crash scarred him for life.

See all 10 meanings of scar

Forms of scarring

pluralscarrings

Words formed from scarring

Questions about scarring

What does scarring mean?
Scarring means a scar; a mark.
What is scarring the present participle and gerund of?
Scarring is the present participle and gerund of scar.
What part of speech is scarring?
Scarring is a noun.
What is the plural of scarring?
The plural of scarring is scarrings.

Words near scarring in the dictionary

  1. scarrers
  2. scarres
  3. scarreth
  4. scarrier
  5. scarriest
  6. scarring
  7. scarringly
  8. scarrings
  9. Scarronian
  10. Scarrow
  11. scarry

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scarring (page history and authors); scar (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.

Last updated:

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