scathing

[skey-th ing] /ˈskeɪ ðɪŋ/
adjective
1.
bitterly severe, as a remark:
a scathing review of the play.
2.
harmful, injurious, or searing.
Origin
1785-95; scathe + -ing2
Related forms
scathingly, adverb

scathe

[skeyth] /skeɪð/
verb (used with object), scathed, scathing.
1.
to attack with severe criticism.
2.
to hurt, harm, or injure, as by scorching.
noun
3.
hurt, harm, or injury.
Origin
before 1000; (noun) Middle English scath(e), scade, schath(e) < Old Norse skathi damage, harm, cognate with Old English sc(e)atha malefactor, injury (with which the Middle English forms with sch- might be identified); (v.) Middle English scath(e), skath(e) < Old Norse skatha, cognate with Old English sceathian
Related forms
scatheless, adjective
scathelessly, adverb
Examples from the web for scathing
  • Not for us to take dominion over other people by scathing remarks.
  • Lovelock himself is scathing about many of the proposals to replace our dependence on fossil fuels.
  • Doctors and patients are equally scathing about the changes.
  • The daily press was scathing about what was-dodgy stage-management aside-a dreary, earthbound slab of oratory.
  • They can be effusive or lukewarm or downright scathing.
  • It was a scathing send-up of our post-modern capitalist society.
  • Critique need be neither scathing nor humiliating to be effective.
  • In private, commission officials are even more scathing.
  • So far, the reviews of the beta version of the site have been scathing.
  • Some tyrannical managers scream and send out scathing e-mails.
British Dictionary definitions for scathing

scathing

/ˈskeɪðɪŋ/
adjective
1.
harshly critical; scornful: a scathing remark
2.
damaging; painful
Derived Forms
scathingly, adverb

scathe

/skeɪð/
verb (transitive)
1.
(rare) to attack with severe criticism
2.
(archaic or dialect) to injure
noun
3.
(archaic or dialect) harm
Derived Forms
scatheless, adjective
Word Origin
Old English sceatha; related to Old Norse skathi, Old Saxon scatho
Word Origin and History for scathing
adj.

1794 in literal sense, present participle adjective from scathe (v.). Of words, speech, etc., from 1852. Related: Scathingly.

scathe

v.

c.1200, from Old Norse skaða "to hurt, harm, damage, injure," from Proto-Germanic *skath- (cf. Old English sceaþian "to hurt, injure," Old Saxon skathon, Old Frisian skethia, Middle Dutch scaden, Dutch schaden, Old High German scadon, German schaden, Gothic scaþjan "to injure, damage"), from PIE root *sket- "to injure." Only cognate outside Germanic seems to be in Greek a-skethes "unharmed, unscathed."

It survives mostly in its negative form, unscathed, and in figurative meaning "sear with invective or satire" (1852, usually as scathing) which developed from the sense of "scar, scorch" used by Milton in "Paradise Lost" i.613 (1667).