[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That wounds or injures; capable of causing hurt or pain. lit. and fig.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 60. Mid spere of wundinde word … weorreð lecherie … wið þe lefdi of chastete.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXIV. iv. Their own tongues to their own woe Shall all their wounding sharpnes bend.
1596. Edward III., V. 138. Crosbowes and deadly wounding darts.
1638[?]. Wotton, in L. P. Smith, Life & Lett. (1907), II. 384. You have left in him illos aculeos,… for you are indeed a wounding man, as my servant Nicholas saith.
1648. J. Quarles, Fons Lachrym., 13. Oh what a wounding sorrow ’tis to think How all will be destroyd.
1718. Prior, Solomon, III. 360. His Journey to pursue, Where wounding Thorns, and cursed Thistles grew.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. i. 271. Forms Of furies, driving by upon the wounding storms.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., ix. III. 176. To a simple unsophisticated girl, this must surely have been cutting and wounding.
1915. F. S. Oliver, Ordeal by Battle, III i. 181. If the Allies should be defeated, or even if they should fail to conquer their present enemies, the result must necessarily be wounding to the credit of popular institutions all the world over.
Hence Woundingly adv.
1887. Temple Bar, May, 144. What she had said to him gently, was said now roughly, woundingly.
1919. J. D. Beresford, Jervaise Comedy, xv. 272. What she implied was woundingly true of that old self of mine which had so recently come under my observation and censure.
