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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
Jordan Salama, New Yorker, 30 Dec. 2025
Parents who can lose days to lice and come out economically unscathed are lucky.
—Lauren Hilgers, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025
While many plants naturally slow their growth or go dormant, others need a bit of extra help to make it through the season unscathed.
—Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 27 Dec. 2025
Colorado’s forests have experienced pine beetle outbreaks for years, but the Front Range remained mostly unscathed.
—Elise Schmelzer, Denver Post, 22 Dec. 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 5 Jan. 2026.
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unscathed
adjective
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