A foot with a large bruise.
- The definition of a bruise is an injured area of a surface that becomes discolored, or to crush with force, or the hurt of a person's feelings.
- An example of a bruise is a black and blue injury on the skin.
- An example of a bruise is to crush mint leaves in a mortar and pestle to bring out the scent and taste of the mint for a cocktail.
- An example of a bruise is to tell someone something that makes them feel bad about themselves.
- Bruise means to injure the outside of something or someone.
- An example of bruise is to punch someone and cause a black and blue mark.
- An example of bruise is to push hard on a piece of fruit, making a dent in the skin of the fruit and causing the fruit to darken.
- to injure (tissue), as by a blow, without breaking the skin but causing discoloration
- to injure the surface or outside of, causing spoilage, denting, etc.: bruised peaches, a bruised auto fender
- to crush with or as with mortar and pestle
- to hurt (the feelings, spirit, etc.)
Origin of bruiseMiddle English bruisen ; from Old English brysan, to crush, pound ; from Indo-European base an unverified form bhreus-, to smash, crush; Middle English form and amp; meaning influenced, influence by Old French bruisier, to break, shatter ; from Gaulish an unverified form brus- ; from same Indo-European base
- to bruise tissue, a surface, etc.
- to be or become bruised
- a bruised area of tissue, of a surface, etc.
- an injury to one's feelings, spirit, etc.
verbbruised, bruis·ing, bruis·es
- a. To injure the underlying soft tissue or bone of (part of the body) without breaking the skin, as by a blow.b. To damage (plant tissue), as by abrasion or pressure: bruised the fruit by careless packing.
- To dent or mar.
- To pound (berries, for example) into fragments; crush.
- To hurt, especially psychologically.
- An injury to underlying tissues or bone in which the skin is not broken, often characterized by ruptured blood vessels and discolorations.
- A similar injury to plant tissue, often resulting in discoloration or spoilage.
- A painful feeling caused by or associated with an experience.
Origin of bruiseMiddle English bruisen, from Old English br&ymacron;san, to crush, and from Old North French bruisier (of Celtic origin).
(third-person singular simple present bruises, present participle bruising, simple past and past participle bruised)
- To strike (a person), originally with something flat or heavy, but now specifically in such a way as to discolour the skin without breaking it.
- To damage the skin of (fruit), in an analogous way.
- (intransitive) Of fruit, to gain bruises through being handled roughly.
- Bananas bruise easily.
- (intransitive) To become bruised.
- I bruise easily.
- (intransitive) To fight with the fists; to box.
From Middle English bruisen, brusen, from Anglo-Norman bruiser, bruser (“to break, smash”), from Gaulish *brusu (compare Old Irish brúu (“I shatter, smash”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreus- (“to break”) (compare Latin frustum (“bit, scrap”), Old Church Slavonic бръснути (brŭsnuti, “to rake”), Albanian breshër (“hail”)).Replaced early modern English brise (compare Scots brizz), from Middle English brisen, bresen, from Old English brȳsan, briesan (“to crush”), from Proto-Germanic *brausijaną, causative from the same PIE root. Cognate with Old English brosnian (“to crumble, fall apart”), Dutch broos (“brittle”), German Brosame (“crumb”), dialectal Norwegian brøysk (“breakable”).