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to feel ouchy

to feel ouchy

9.9
To have a small sore feeling in a part of the body
  • phrasal verb
  • Baby Talk
translation icon : sentir dolorcito
  • He complained that his finger felt ouchy after accidentally closing the door on it.

Examples

  • Does your arm feel ouchy after getting the vaccine?

  • When I touch that bruise, it feels ouchy and tender.

  • After a long walk, my feet feel ouchy from wearing new shoes.

  • I feel ouchy after that fall.

  • She feels ouchy when she bumps her knee.

  • After running in the park, my legs feel ouchy from the exercise.

  • After playing on the playground, the children feel ouchy when they scrape their knees.

Synonyms

to hurt
vsto feel ouchy
1.0

Make someone suffer physical or emotional pain

is milder and childlike rather than involving serious injury or emotional harm
aching
vsto feel ouchy
3 1.5

Having a constant, dull pain in a part of the body

is a mild childlike soreness rather than a persistent dull pain

Antonyms

494 1.0

Not feeling pain or physical discomfort

How Painful

agony
135 3.9
to hurt
1.0
sore
192 1.0
to feel ouchy
  • Baby Talk
9.9
unhurt
7 1.0

Surface Forms

feel ouchy infinitive
felt ouchy past
felt ouchy past participle
feeling ouchy present participle
feels ouchy third person singular

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.