Skip to main content
to feel ouchy

to feel ouchy

9.9
To have a small sore feeling in a part of the body
  • phrasal verb
  • Baby Talk
: 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.