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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
Mark Price, Miami Herald, 21 May 2025
But Abbott got out of the inning unscathed with a strikeout and a lineout, to push his streak of not allowing a hit in the first inning to nine starts.
—C. Trent Rosecrans, New York Times, 19 May 2025
Shaken, George goes straight to his ex-wife’s house, where the boy is, thankfully, unscathed.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 19 May 2025
Few leave unscathed as the handheld camera whip-pans and fast-zooms between cringe-comedy and genuine pathos and back again — especially once the hapless prof paves his own road to hell with his good intentions.
—Ben Croll, IndieWire, 19 May 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 27 May. 2025.
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unscathed
adjective
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