to feel ouchy
- phrasal verb
- Baby Talk
- He complained that his finger felt ouchy after accidentally closing the door on it.
Examples
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Does your arm feel ouchy after getting the vaccine?
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When I touch that bruise, it feels ouchy and tender.
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After a long walk, my feet feel ouchy from wearing new shoes.
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I feel ouchy after that fall.
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She feels ouchy when she bumps her knee.
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After running in the park, my legs feel ouchy from the exercise.
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After playing on the playground, the children feel ouchy when they scrape their knees.
Synonyms
Antonyms
How Painful
Surface Forms
Morphology
feel + ouchy
Although 'ouchy' is informal and not listed in the dictionary, its meaning is transparently derived from the interjection 'ouch' plus the productive adjectival suffix '-y' (meaning 'having the quality of'). Combined with 'feel' (to experience), a B1 learner who knows 'feel' and recognizes 'ouch' can readily infer 'feel ouchy' as 'feel sore/in pain', so the expression is compositional and immediately accessible.
Etymology
Feel ouchy probably comes from the little cry 'ouch' people say when something hurts, with ouchy as a simple describing word. So feel ouchy means 'to feel pain or soreness', often in a mild or childlike way.