Scathing
//ˈskeɪðɪŋ// adj, verb
adj, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 present participle and gerund of scathe form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
- 1 Harshly or bitterly critical; vitriolic.
"For months, Dati warned she would refuse to stand aside. Now she has stunned the political class with an open letter to Fillon in Le Monde, a scathing character assassination accusing him of the "lone ambition" of a disillusioned political elite, of doing politics in a way that "never favoured women" and stopping ethnic-minority candidates from progressing at elections. She said he was committing "a sad mistake" in trying to run in Paris."
- 2 Harmful or painful; acerbic.
Adjective
- 1 marked by harshly abusive criticism wordnet
Example
More examples"We were surprised to hear him make such scathing remarks about his best friend."
More for "scathing"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.