scar

noun

1. A permanent mark on the skin, sometimes caused by the healing of a wound.
2. (broadly)A permanent negative effect on someone's mind, caused by a traumatic experience.

   “Thus, it is wise to avoid cultivating an emotional scar, as it can play havoc with your happiness and success.”

3. Any permanent mark resulting from damage.

   “Her age-old weapons, flood and fire, left scars on the canyon which time will never efface.”

   “There is a real scar on the landscape, but it reminds me exactly of scenes I photographed from the construction of High Speed 1 in Kent and Essex, and of the Norton Bridge flyover in Staffordshire. Scars heal, and the replanting and rewilding that Penny had shown me at Cubbington display the early stages.”

4. A cliff or rock outcrop.

   “O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, / ⁠And thinner, clearer, farther going! / O sweet and far from cliff and scar / ⁠The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!”

   “All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another. “Hi!” it said. “Wait a minute!” The undergrowth at the side of the scar was shaken and a multitude of raindrops fell pattering.”

5. A rock in the sea breaking out from the surface of the water.
6. A bare rocky place on the side of a hill or mountain.
7. A marine food fish, the scarus or parrotfish (family Scaridae).

verb

1. (transitive)To mark the skin permanently.

   “Yet I'll not shed her blood; / Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow.”

2. (intransitive)To form a scar.

   “Iron and coal were the magnets that drew railways to this land of lovely valleys and silent mountains—for such it was a century-and-a-half ago, before man blackened the valleys with the smoke of his forges, scarred the green hills with his shafts and waste-heaps, and drove the salmon from the quiet Rhondda and the murmuring Taff.”

   “And black skin scars badly. Whatʼs left behind stays pink and angry, always.”

3. (figuratively, transitive)To affect deeply in a traumatic manner.

   “Seeing his parents die in a car crash scarred him for life.”