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Can you be scathed instead of unscathed?
We often hear of a person coming through some difficult circumstance, or dangerous endeavor, and “emerging unscathed,” yet we rarely hear of anyone “emerging scathed.” Why is this? Scathe is a word: it may function as a noun (“harm, injury”) or as a verb (“to do harm to,” “to assail with withering denunciation”). It is not as commonly found as it once was, and now primarily serves as the basis for the adjective scathing (“bitterly severe”) or for the latter portion of unscathed. So you can say that someone “emerged scathed” if you wish, but be advised that it will have a curiously archaic sound to it.
Examples of unscathed in a Sentence
Soo Kim, MSNBC Newsweek, 23 June 2025
Though Duke Alvarez: American Mummy Outlaw survived relatively unscathed, subsequent issues were produced at a fraction of the cost.
—Hazlitt, 18 June 2025
Ohtani got through his first two-way test unscathed.
—Fabian Ardaya, New York Times, 17 June 2025
And not just as a piece of theatrical son et lumiere as happened last time when Israel got off virtually unscathed.
—Melik Kaylan, Forbes.com, 16 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for unscathed
Cite this Entry
“Unscathed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unscathed. Accessed 6 Jul. 2025.
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unscathed
adjective
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