HURTING Synonyms: 216 Similar and Opposite Words

hurting 1 of 2

adjective

as in aching

causing or feeling bodily pain a badly hurting finger kept her from writing neatly

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hurting

2 of 2

verb

present participle of hurt

as in throbbing

to feel or cause physical pain my head hurts a bad sprain that really hurts I hurt all over

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as in damaging

to reduce the soundness, effectiveness, or perfection of don't worry that you'll hurt the new lawn by walking across it

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as in injuring

to cause bodily damage to the common belief that reading in poor light hurts your eyes

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as in grieving

to feel deep sadness or mental pain I know you must be hurting from the cruel words they said

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of hurting

Verb

In the meantime, the rising 10-year Treasury yield is making mortgages more expensive and hurting the housing industry. — Stan Choe, Los Angeles Times, 10 Sep. 2026 Another setback was an incident in which the company mistakenly used a Japanese drum for a promotion in China, sparking backlash and hurting sales. — Jordan Valinsky, CNN Money, 8 Sep. 2026 Trump’s threat to cut off foreign trade could endanger growth, further hurting his ratings. — Josh Boak, Fortune, 5 Sep. 2026 Trucking and freight will face higher diesel prices hurting their margins, usually with a lag before those fuel surcharges catch up. — Todd Gordon, CNBC, 2 Sep. 2026 Recent polling shows that high pump prices are driving down presidential approval and hurting Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. — Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA Today, 31 Aug. 2026 Mayer had some early success with her jab, but Cameron increasingly took control as the fight progressed and landed the cleaner punches before hurting Mayer with a right hand in the eighth round. — Amelie Claydon, New York Times, 30 Aug. 2026 And whether technology in a classroom is helping or hurting depends a lot on the teacher, experts say. — Allison Parshall, Scientific American, 28 Aug. 2026 Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool Musgrove also recalled a conversation with Patrick and Lindsay Clancy where her daughter expressed a fear of hurting the children. — Kerry Breen, CBS News, 27 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for hurting

Adjective

The homestretch of the drama, however, takes the story in a chilling direction, packing an aching quantity of feeling into a single glance at a security camera as someone climbs into a car and leaves the compound, never to be heard from again.

— Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 26 May 2026
Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain (1997) Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain is an aching, tender slow burn shaped by absence.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 3 Apr. 2026

Definition of aching

Verb

The pilots of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 were blamed for crashing into a seawall in 2013, sending their jet cartwheeling down a runway in San Francisco, killing three people and injuring 187 others.

— Alexandra Skores, CNN Money, 14 Sep. 2026
The jet, traveling from San Juan, Puerto Rico, overshot the runway, killing five people and injuring another five.

— Madeleine Marr, Miami Herald, 14 Sep. 2026

Definition of injuring

Verb

Father Joe himself certainly has the backstory for it, being a war veteran who married an Asian woman who died young and lost his grieving daughter to an overdose.

— Damon Wise, Deadline, 6 Sep. 2026
Some needed reliable support; others internalized attention as a loss of privacy while grieving.

— Dr. Victor Fornari, New York Daily News, 6 Sep. 2026

Definition of grieving

Adjective

For the film, Hossain said that Badhon called in her real doctor to inject her during a scene where her character undergoes painful platelet-rich plasma injections.

— Ritesh Mehta, IndieWire, 5 Sep. 2026
And meager pay raises have made rising prices more painful for many.

— Paul Wiseman, Los Angeles Times, 4 Sep. 2026

Definition of painful

Verb

To prevent a similar war from happening again, Menelaus scarred her face, permanently marring her famous beauty.

— Tanya Fedak, Variety, 18 July 2026
Lined with live oaks and old-fashioned, busy storefronts, this artsy town on the Gulf of Mexico has no commercial development marring its shoreline.

— Valerie Fraser Luesse, Southern Living, 16 June 2026

Definition of marring

Verb

In Zaporizhzhia, drone strikes killed a 74-year-old man and wounded three people, while a drone damaged an apartment building, wounding seven people, in the Khmelnytskyi region.

— Samya Kullab, Fortune, 6 Sep. 2026
Iran accused Washington of striking a wedding party, killing four people and wounding dozens.

— Kanishka Singh, USA Today, 2 Sep. 2026

Definition of wounding

Verb

Before the terrible day was over firehouses, street corners and parks became mourning places.

— Robert W. Snyder, New York Daily News, 6 Sep. 2026
As the first episode begins, the exultant staffers arrive at work only to find out the office in mourning over the death of a beloved Softees salesman, whose problematic personal life will make the writing of the obit a nightmare of an assignment.

— Julie Hinds, Freep.com, 3 Sep. 2026