SMARTING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does smarting mean? 

• SMARTING (noun)
  The noun SMARTING has 1 sense:

1. a kind of pain such as that caused by a wound or a burn or a sore

  Familiarity information: SMARTING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SMARTING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A kind of pain such as that caused by a wound or a burn or a sore

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

smart; smarting; smartness

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

hurting; pain (a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder)

Derivation:

smart (be the source of pain)

 Context examples 

I could not bring it into play; it was overwhelmed, buried, lost in those earlier feelings which I had been smarting under year after year.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

As the evening grew late, Norton, smarting under the repeated charges of being a metaphysician, clutching his chair to keep from jumping to his feet, his gray eyes snapping and his girlish face grown harsh and sure, made a grand attack upon their position.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the particulars of my night’s adventure, and I sprang to my feet with the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers.

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