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Glite Dictionary
🤕 To hurt again 💔 To hurt emotionally
to reinjure

to reinjure

6.5
To hurt someone's feelings again by bringing up a past painful event
  • verb
  • /ˌriːˈɪnʤər/
translation icon : volver a herir
  • Talking about the past can sometimes reinjure old emotional wounds.

Examples

  • He apologized, hoping not to reinjure her by bringing up the subject again.

  • She was careful not to reinjure his feelings by mentioning the painful event.

  • Don't reinjure those old wounds!

  • She reinjures herself every time she remembers that incident.

  • Talking about the incident can reinjure her feelings, so it's best to avoid it.

  • He worries that discussing the breakup will reinjure his trust issues.

  • Mentioning that painful memory might reinjure her emotional scars.

Synonyms

to reopen old wounds
vsto reinjure
  • Informal
1 7.4

Cause people to remember old hurts or problems

is focused on causing emotional pain again by bringing up past hurt
to rub salt in the wound
vsto reinjure
  • Informal
1 6.6

To make someone's bad feelings worse by reminding them of a disappointment

is about causing emotional pain again without implying deliberate cruelty

Antonyms

to comfort
172 1.0

To make someone feel less upset or in pain

How Painful

to traumatize
87 6.9
to wound
110 5.7
to reinjure
6.5
to hurt
∞ 1.0
to upset
362 1.0

Surface Forms

reinjure infinitive
reinjured past
reinjured past participle
reinjuring present participle
reinjures third person singular

Morphology

reinjure = injure (transparent) = re + injure

The prefix 're-' clearly adds the meaning 'again' to 'injure', including its emotional or psychological use.

Etymology

The word reinjure is made from re- meaning 'again' and injure meaning 'to hurt'. A helpful way to remember the emotional sense is to think of an old 'wound' being opened again, so to reinjure someone emotionally is to cause the same pain again.