scathe
To harm or injure (someone or something) physically.
archaic, transitive
You muſt contrarie me, […]
This trick may chance to ſcath you I knovv vvhat,To harm or injure (someone or something) physically. — To cause monetary loss to (someone).
archaic, obsolete, transitive
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.
VVell goe too vvild oates, ſpend thrift, prodigall,To harm, injure, or destroy (someone or something) by fire, lightning, or some other heat source; to blast; to scorch; to wither.
archaic, literary, transitive
The Monk resumed his muttered spell. Dismal and low its accents came, The while he scathed the Cross with flame; […]
The shout was hushed on lake and fell,To severely hurt (someone's feelings, soul, etc., or something intangible) through acts, words spoken, etc.
archaic, figuratively, transitive
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.
Where it comes from
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;
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry scathe (CC BY-SA 4.0).