bruise

bruise

I

bruise¹ /bruːz/ noun [countable]
1. a purple or brown mark on your skin that you get because you have fallen, been hit etc:
    minor cuts and bruises
2. a mark on a piece of fruit that spoils its appearance

II

bruise² verb1. [intransitive and transitive] if part of your body bruises, or if you bruise part of your body, it gets hit or hurt and a bruise appears:
    She fell off her bike and bruised her knee.
2. [transitive] to affect someone badly and make them feel less confident
    bruise sb’s pride/ego
    The incident had bruised his pride.
3. [intransitive and transitive] if a piece of fruit bruises, or is bruised, it gets a bruise by being hit, dropped etc
—bruised adjective:
    a badly bruised knee
    a bruised ego
     

THESAURUS

■ to injure yourself or someone else
   ▪ hurt to damage part of your body, or someone else’s body: She slipped on the ice and hurt herself badly. | Be careful you don’t hurt anyone with that knife.
   ▪ injure to hurt yourself quite severely, or to be hurt in an accident or fighting: One of our players has injured his leg, and will be out of the game for weeks. | Four people have been seriously injured on the Arizona highway.
   ▪ wound to deliberately hurt someone using a weapon such as a knife or gun: The gunmen shot and killed twelve people and wounded three others.
   ▪ maim /meɪm/ [usually passive] to hurt someone very severely, especially so that they lose an arm, leg etc, often as the result of an explosion: In countries where there are landmines, people are killed and maimed daily.
   ▪ break to hurt a part of your body by breaking a bone in it: The X-ray showed that I had broken my wrist.
   ▪ bruise to hurt a part of your body when you fall on it or hit it, causing a dark mark to appear on your skin: Cathy fell off her bike and bruised her legs badly.
   ▪ sprain/twist to hurt your knee, wrist, shoulder etc by suddenly twisting it while you are moving: I jumped down from the wall and landed awkwardly, spraining my ankle.
   ▪ strain/pull to hurt one of your muscles by stretching it or using it too much: When you are lifting heavy loads, be careful not to strain a back muscle.
   ▪ dislocate to damage a joint in your body in a way that moves the two parts of the joint out of their normal position: Our best batsman dislocated his shoulder during training.
   ▪ paralyse [usually passive] to make someone lose the ability to move part or all of their body: A climbing accident had left him paralysed from the chest down.