Bruising
adj, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A violent physical attack on a person. slang
"You'd better shut up or you'll get a bruising."
- 2 Bruises on a person's skin.
"[…] on October 29, 1888, the Russian imperial train was derailed at Borki by defective track, and twenty-one persons were killed. Although these did not include the Emperor Alexander III, who escaped with a bruising, a footman serving coffee to him at the critical moment, and his dog, which was lying on the floor beside him, were both killed on the spot."
- 1 present participle and gerund of bruise form-of, gerund, participle, present
- 1 That bruises.
- 2 Wearisome, arduous.
"Instead England produced something that felt a little transgressive in this most controlled of stages, tightening their grip in a bruising first half, before freewheeling downhill in the second with their feet up on the handlebars."
- 1 brutally forceful and compelling wordnet
- 2 causing mental or emotional injury wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"This is a bruising information war. At this rate we'll never come out on top. We've got to replace our CIO."
Etymology
From bruise + -ing.
Related phrases
More for "bruising"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.