scathe

noun

1. (British, archaic, countable, dialectal, uncountable)Damage, harm, hurt, injury.

   “Therefore great Lords bee as your titles vvitnes, / Imperious, and impatient of your vvrongs, / And vvherein Rome hath done you any ſkath, / Let him make treable ſatisfaction.”

   “[S]trong ale and noble cheere / t'aſſwage breeme winters ſcathes.”

   “I red ye weel, tak care o' ſkaith, / See there's a gully!”

   “Let us take the scathe and the scorn candidly home to us;—and try to prepare for doing better.”

   “Now telleth the tale concerning the sons of Gudrun, that she had arrayed their war-raiment in such wise, that no steel would bite thereon; and she bade them play not with stones or other heavy matters, for that it would be to their scathe if they did so.”

2. (British, archaic, countable, dialectal)Someone who, or something which, causes harm; an injurer.

   “The pride I trampled is now my scathe, / For it tramples me again.”

3. (British, archaic, countable, dialectal, obsolete)An injury or loss for which compensation is sought in a lawsuit; damage; also, expenses incurred by a claimant; costs.
4. (British, archaic, dialectal, uncountable)Something to be mourned or regretted.

   “They deemed it little scathe indeed / That her coarse homespun ragged weed / Fell off from her round arms and lithe / Laid on the door-post, that a withe / Of willows was her only belt; / And each as he gazed at her felt / As some gift had been given him.”

verb

1. (British, Scotland, archaic, dialectal, transitive)To harm or injure (someone or something) physically.

   “This trick may chance to ſcath you I knovv vvhat, / You muſt contrarie me, […]”

   “Thir Glory witherd. As when Heavens Fire / Hath ſcath'd the Forreſt Oaks, or Mountain Pines, / With ſinged top their ſtately growth though bare / Stands on the blaſted Heath.”

   “Think, wicked Sinner, wha ye're ſkaithing: / It's juſt the Blue-gown badge an' claithing, / O' Saunts; tak that, ye lea'e them naething, / To ken them by, / Frae ony unregenerate Heathen, / Like you or I.”

   “[T]wice Matilda came between / The carabine and Redmond's breast, / Just ere the spring his finger pressed. / […] / "It ne'er," he muttered, "shall be said, / That thus I scathed thee, haughty maid!"”

   “Seek not the giddy crag to climb, / To view the turret scathed by time; / It is a task of doubt and fear / To aught but goat or mountain-deer.”

2. (British, Scotland, archaic, dialectal, obsolete, specifically, transitive)To harm or injure (someone or something) physically.

   “VVell goe too vvild oates, ſpend thrift, prodigall, / 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.”

3. (British, archaic, broadly, dialectal, literary, poetic, transitive)To harm, injure, or destroy (someone or something) by fire, lightning, or some other heat source; to blast; to scorch; to wither.

   “The shout was hushed on lake and fell, / The Monk resumed his muttered spell. / Dismal and low its accents came, / The while he scathed the Cross with flame; […]”

   “Hoary, yet haughty, frowns the oak, / Its boughs by weight of ages broke; / And towers erect, in sable spire, / The pine-tree scathed by lightning fire; […]”

   “Winter and summer / That wood beeth changeless / Starr'd with rich stores; / Shriveleth never / Leaf under loft / Nor lightning it scatheth, […]”

   “[The sun] with vertical and torrid rays / Scathest the middle zone, and equallest the days.”

   “'Tis the wild stream of hell! oh it burneth the soul, / It scatheth, and blighteth, and killeth the whole; […]”

4. (British, archaic, dialectal, figuratively, transitive)To severely hurt (someone's feelings, soul, etc., or something intangible) through acts, words spoken, etc.

   “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.”

   “For the fire-baptised soul, long so scathed and thunder-riven, here feels its own Freedom, which feeling is its Baphometic Baptism: […]”