HARM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does harm mean? 

• HARM (noun)
  The noun HARM has 3 senses:

1. any physical damage to the body caused by violence or accident or fracture etc.

2. the occurrence of a change for the worse

3. the act of damaging something or someone

  Familiarity information: HARM used as a noun is uncommon.

• HARM (verb)
  The verb HARM has 1 sense:

1. cause or do harm to

  Familiarity information: HARM used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HARM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any physical damage to the body caused by violence or accident or fracture etc.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

harm; hurt; injury; trauma

Hypernyms ("harm" is a kind of...):

health problem; ill health; unhealthiness (a state in which you are unable to function normally and without pain)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "harm"):

intravasation (entry of foreign matter into a blood vessel)

burn (an injury caused by exposure to heat or chemicals or radiation)

penetrating injury; penetrating trauma (injury incurred when an object (as a knife or bullet or shrapnel) penetrates into the body)

pinch (an injury resulting from getting some body part squeezed)

rupture (state of being torn or burst open)

bite; insect bite; sting (a painful wound caused by the thrust of an insect's stinger into skin)

strain (injury to a muscle (often caused by overuse); results in swelling and pain)

whiplash; whiplash injury (an injury to the neck (the cervical vertebrae) resulting from rapid acceleration or deceleration (as in an automobile accident))

wale; weal; welt; wheal (a raised mark on the skin (as produced by the blow of a whip); characteristic of many allergic reactions)

lesion; wound (an injury to living tissue (especially an injury involving a cut or break in the skin))

pull; twist; wrench (a sharp strain on muscles or ligaments)

cryopathy; frostbite (destruction of tissue by freezing and characterized by tingling, blistering and possibly gangrene)

break; fracture (breaking of hard tissue such as bone)

electric shock (trauma caused by the passage of electric current through the body (as from contact with high voltage lines or being struck by lightning); usually involves burns and abnormal heart rhythm and unconsciousness)

dislocation (a displacement of a part (especially a bone) from its normal position (as in the shoulder or the vertebral column))

bump (a lump on the body caused by a blow)

bruise; contusion (an injury that doesn't break the skin but results in some discoloration)

blunt trauma (injury incurred when the human body hits or is hit by a large outside object (as a car))

bleeding; haemorrhage; hemorrhage (the flow of blood from a ruptured blood vessel)

blast trauma (injury caused the explosion of a bomb (especially in enclosed spaces))

birth trauma (physical injury to an infant during the birth process)

brain damage (injury to the brain that impairs its functions (especially permanently); can be caused by trauma to the head, infection, hemorrhage, inadequate oxygen, genetic abnormality, etc.)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The occurrence of a change for the worse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

damage; harm; impairment

Hypernyms ("harm" is a kind of...):

alteration; change; modification (an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "harm"):

detriment; hurt (a damage or loss)

deformation; distortion (a change for the worse)

ladder; ravel; run (a row of unravelled stitches)

Derivation:

harm (cause or do harm to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of damaging something or someone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

damage; harm; hurt; scathe

Hypernyms ("harm" is a kind of...):

change of integrity (the act of changing the unity or wholeness of something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "harm"):

defacement; disfiguration; disfigurement; mutilation (the act of damaging the appearance or surface of something)

wound; wounding (the act of inflicting a wound)

burn (damage inflicted by fire)

defloration (an act that despoils the innocence or beauty of something)

impairment (damage that results in a reduction of strength or quality)

Derivation:

harm (cause or do harm to)

• HARM (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they harm    ... he / she / it harms   
Past simple: harmed   
Past participle: harmed   
-ing form: harming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause or do harm to

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Context example:

These pills won't harm your system

Hypernyms (to "harm" is one way to...):

injure; wound (cause injuries or bodily harm to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "harm"):

sicken (make sick or ill)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s to somebody

Derivation:

harm (the act of damaging something or someone)

harm (the occurrence of a change for the worse)

 Context examples 

Toto had always loved to chase mice when he lived in Kansas, and he saw no harm in it.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

If the relationship was a positive, healthy one, there is no harm in getting together for dinner to see how you both feel about reconciliation.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

If not, there is no harm done.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It wouldn't do any harm to try it, he decided, by the time they had reached the sidewalk; and he swung behind Ruth and took up his station on the outside.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Thereupon he went away, and when he returned next day she had not done it, and said: “Why should I shed the blood of an innocent boy who has never harmed anyone?”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

"Our review found that if you want to use multivitamins, vitamin D, calcium or vitamin C, it does no harm — but there is no apparent advantage either."

(Most Popular Supplements Provide No Health Benefit, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

I do not wish to try too hard lest I harm her; for I know that she have suffer much, and sleep at times be all-in-all to her.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at the Assizes.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She said that she feared that I might come to harm.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Most deaths due to unintentional injury were found to be due to overdose — 72% in the self-harm group and 61% in the ideation group — underscoring the overlap between suicide and overdose risk.

(Emergency department study reveals patterns of patients at increased risk for suicide, National Institutes of Health)