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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
Jennifer Zhan, Vulture, 12 Apr. 2025
The younger of the two, Bella, is unscathed; her sister had jumped into a pool to rescue her and ended up drowning herself.
—Stephanie Sengwe, People.com, 10 Apr. 2025
That may sound like too sympathetic a conclusion for The White Lotus to draw, but episode by episode, White turns up the heat so that no one emerges unscathed.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2025
The Huskies were unscathed through the jitters and what proved to be South Carolina’s best shot.
—Marcus Thompson Ii, New York Times, 7 Apr. 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 25 Apr. 2025.
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unscathed
adjective
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