smarting.
Painful, sore.
Meaning & usage
Painful, sore.
My arm is still smarting from where the ball hit it.
Experiencing emotional pain or embarrassment.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English smertyng, smertinge, from Old English smeortung, smertung (“smarting, itching”), equivalent to smart + -ing.
A sensation that smarts or stings.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English smertyng, smertinge, from Old English smeortung, smertung (“smarting, itching”), equivalent to smart + -ing.
present participle and gerund of smart
Where this word comes from
From Middle English smertyng, smertinge, from Old English smeortung, smertung (“smarting, itching”), equivalent to smart + -ing.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.