[S]trong ale and noble cheere
t'aſſwage breeme winters ſcathes. 1606?, Michaell Drayton [i.e., Michael Drayton], “Ode 7”, in Poemes Lyrick and Pastorall. […], London: […] R. B[radock] for N[icholas] L[ing] and I[ohn] Flasket, →OCLC; republished in Poemes Lyrick and Pastorall (Publications of the Spenser Society, New Series; 4), [Manchester: […] Charles E. Simms] for the Spenser Society, 1891, →OCLC, page 22:
I red ye weel, tak care o' ſkaith,
See there's a gully! [1787, Robert Burns, “Death and Doctor Hornbook, a True Story”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, page 56:
Therefore great Lords bee as your titles vvitnes,
Imperious, and impatient of your vvrongs,
And vvherein Rome hath done you any ſkath,
Let him make treable ſatisfaction. c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], signature [H4], recto:
Now telleth the tale concerning the sons of Gudrun, that she had arrayed their war-raiment in such wise, that no steel would bite thereon; and she bade them play not with stones or other heavy matters, for that it would be to their scathe if they did so. 1870, “The Latter End of All the Kin of the Giukings”, in Eiríkr Magnússon, William Morris, transl., Völsunga Saga. The Story of the Volsungs & Niblungs: With Certain Songs from the Elder Edda. […], London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], →OCLC, page 161:
Let us take the scathe and the scorn candidly home to us;—and try to prepare for doing better. 1864, Thomas Carlyle, “Friedrich Reduced to Straits; Cannot Maintain His Moldau Conquests against Prince Karl”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume IV, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book XV, page 60:
'Twas bull, 'twas mitred Minotaur,
A dead disbowelled mystery;
The mummy of a buried faith
Stark from the charnel without scathe,
Its wings stood for the light to bathe,— […] 1870 April 26, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “[Poems.] The Burden of Nineveh.”, in Poems, London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], →OCLC, stanza 2, pages 21–22:
(UK, archaic, countable, dialectal) Someone who, or something which, causes harm; an injurer.
The pride I trampled is now my scathe,
For it tramples me again. 1888, William Ernest Henley, “Life and Death (Echoes)”, in A Book of Verses, London: David Nutt […], →OCLC, canto XXXV, page 102:
(UK, archaic, countable, dialectal, obsolete, qualifier:Scots law) An injury or loss for which compensation is sought in a lawsuit; damage; also, expenses incurred by a claimant; costs.
(UK, archaic, dialectal, uncountable) Something to be mourned or regretted.
They deemed it little scathe indeed
That her coarse homespun ragged weed
Fell off from her round arms and lithe
Laid on the door-post, that a withe
Of willows was her only belt;
And each as he gazed at her felt
As some gift had been given him. 1870, William Morris, “December: The Fostering of Aslaug”, in The Earthly Paradise: A Poem, part IV, London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], →OCLC, page 57:
From Middle English scathen (“to harm, attack, defeat”) [and other forms], from Old Norse skaða (“to damage, harm; to hurt, injure”), from Proto-Germanic *skaþōną (“to damage, harm; to injure”) (whence Old English sceaþian, scaþian (“to harm, hurt, injure, scathe”)), from *skaþô (“damage, scathe; one who causes damage, injurer”, noun); see further at etymology 1.
Sense 2 (“to harm, injure, or destroy (someone or something) by fire, lightning, or some other heat source”) appears to derive from Paradise Lost by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674), perhaps influenced by scorch: see the 1667 quotation.
Cognates
* Albanian shkathët (“adept, clever, skilful”)
* Danish skade (“to hurt, injure”)
* Dutch schaden (“to injure”)
* Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌸𐌾𐌰𐌽 (skaþjan, “to harm, injure; to do wrong”)
* Ancient Greek ἀσκηθής (askēthḗs, “unhurt”)
* Old Frisian skathia (“to injure”)
* Old High German skadôn (Middle High German schaden, German schaden (“to damage, harm, hurt; to be harmful”))
* Old Norse skeðja (“to hurt”)
* Old Saxon scaðon (“to slander”)
* Swedish skada (“to hurt, injure”)
Meanings
(Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal, transitive) To harm or injure (someone or something) physically.
This trick may chance to ſcath you I knovv vvhat,
You muſt contrarie me, […] c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Iuliet. […] (Second Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, […], published 1599, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
Think, wicked Sinner, wha ye're ſkaithing:
It's juſt the Blue-gown badge an' claithing,
O' Saunts; tak that, ye lea'e them naething,
To ken them by,
Frae ony unregenerate Heathen,
Like you or I. [1786, Robert Burns, “Epistle to J. R******, Enclosing Some Poems”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume I, Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] John Wilson, →OCLC; reprinted Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, 1867, →OCLC, page 219:
[T]wice Matilda came between
The carabine and Redmond's breast,
Just ere the spring his finger pressed.
[…]
"It ne'er," he muttered, "shall be said,
That thus I scathed thee, haughty maid!" 1813, Walter Scott, “Canto Fourth”, in Rokeby; a Poem, Edinburgh: […] [F]or John Ballantyne and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; by James Ballantyne and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza XXVI, page 192:
Thir Glory witherd. As when Heavens Fire
Hath ſcath'd the Forreſt Oaks, or Mountain Pines,
With ſinged top their ſtately growth though bare
Stands on the blaſted Heath. 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 612–615:
Seek not the giddy crag to climb,
To view the turret scathed by time;
It is a task of doubt and fear
To aught but goat or mountain-deer. 1815, Walter Scott, “Canto Fourth”, in The Lord of the Isles, a Poem, Edinburgh: […] [F]or Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; by James Ballantyne and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza VIII, page 137:
Leechdoms regarding […] how the congressus sexuum is not holesome for a dry body, and how it scatheth not a hot nor a wet one: […] 1865, “Leech Book. Book II.”, in Oswald Cockayne, editor, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England. Being a Collection of Documents, for the Most Part Never before Printed, Illustrating the History of Science in this Country before the Norman Conquest. […] (Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores, or Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages; 35), volume II, London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, →OCLC, page 163:
(Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal, obsolete, specifically, transitive) To harm or injure (someone or something) physically. ▸ To cause monetary loss to (someone).
VVell goe too vvild oates, ſpend thrift, prodigall,
Ile croſſe thy name quite from my reckoning booke:
For theſe accounts, faith it ſhall skathe thee ſomevvhat,
I vvill not ſay vvhat ſomevvhat it ſhall be. 1602, [Thomas Heywood], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie, wherein is Shewed How a Man may Chuse a Good Wife from a Bad. […], London: […] [Thomas Creede] for Mathew Lawe, […], →OCLC; reprinted as How a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad (Old English Drama Students Facsimile; 50), [London: s.n.], 1912, →OCLC, signature C, recto:
(UK, archaic, broadly, dialectal, literary, poetic, transitive) To harm, injure, or destroy (someone or something) by fire, lightning, or some other heat source; to blast; to scorch; to wither.
[The sun] with vertical and torrid rays
Scathest the middle zone, and equallest the days. 1853, Mary Benn, “[Part the First]”, in The Solitary; or A Lay from the West; with Other Poems, […], London: Joseph Masters, […]; Dublin: James McGlashan, […], →OCLC, 1st part, stanza 127, page 49:
'Tis the wild stream of hell! oh it burneth the soul,
It scatheth, and blighteth, and killeth the whole; […] 1855, James Avis Bartley, “The Spirit of Poesy”, in Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems, Richmond, Va.: J. W. Randolph, →OCLC, page 141:
Hoary, yet haughty, frowns the oak,
Its boughs by weight of ages broke;
And towers erect, in sable spire,
The pine-tree scathed by lightning fire; […] 1813, Walter Scott, “Canto Fourth”, in Rokeby; a Poem, Edinburgh: […] [F]or John Ballantyne and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; by James Ballantyne and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza III, page 156:
Winter and summer
That wood beeth changeless
Starr'd with rich stores;
Shriveleth never
Leaf under loft
Nor lightning it scatheth, […] 1844, George Stephens, transl., The King of Birds; or, The Lay of the Phœnix; an Anglo-Saxon Song of the Tenth or Eleventh Century. […], London: […] J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Son, […], →OCLC, page 9:
The shout was hushed on lake and fell,
The Monk resumed his muttered spell.
Dismal and low its accents came,
The while he scathed the Cross with flame; […] 1810, Walter Scott, “Canto III. The Gathering.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza X, page 109:
(UK, archaic, dialectal, figuratively, transitive) To severely hurt (someone's feelings, soul, etc., or something intangible) through acts, words spoken, etc.
For the fire-baptised soul, long so scathed and thunder-riven, here feels its own Freedom, which feeling is its Baphometic Baptism: […] 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Centre of Indifference”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 117:
There are some strokes of calamity that scathe and scorch the soul—that penetrate to the vital seat of happiness—and blast it, never again to put forth bud or blossom. 1819 July 31, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Broken Heart”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number II, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 149:
da skade (to harm or injure (someone or something) physically) · es zaherir (to severely hurt (someone’s feelings, soul, etc., or something intangible) through acts, words spoken, etc.) · ru причиня́ть вред (to harm or injure (someone or something) physically) · de verletzen (to severely hurt (someone’s feelings, soul, etc., or something intangible) through acts, words spoken, etc.) · sv skada (to harm or injure (someone or something) physically) · es herir (to harm or injure (someone or something) physically) · fi vahingoittaa (to harm or injure (someone or something) physically) · pt ferir (to harm or injure (someone or something) physically) · it ferire (to harm or injure (someone or something) physically) · fa شخودن (to harm or injure (someone or something) physically) · ml ക്ഷതപ്പെടുത്തുക (to harm or injure (someone or something) physically) · nl schaden (to harm or injure (someone or something) physically)