traumatize
Other forms: traumatized; traumatizing; traumatizes
To traumatize someone is to make them feel a severe, lasting sense of shock and hurt. Being in a bad car accident can traumatize anyone.
In medicine, to traumatize is to hurt or injure physically, but this verb is used more often in everyday speech to mean "harm psychologically or emotionally." War and violence traumatize many people around the world, and even something as seemingly harmless as a scary movie can traumatize a young child. Traumatize comes from trauma, "physical wound" in medical Latin and "a wound, hurt, or defeat" in Greek.
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inflict a trauma uponsynonyms: shock, traumatise
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Vocabulary lists containing traumatize
As you read Brenda Z. Guiberson's "Mammoth Shakes and Monster Waves, Destruction in 12 Countries," learn this word list. Here are links to lists for texts in Grade 6's Collection 3: Mammoth Shakes and Monster Waves, poems about hurricanes, The Banana Tree, A Night to Remember
While the Vietnam War roils America, seventh grader Holling Hoodhood contends with Shakespeare, a demanding father, a school bully, and more. Learn these words from Schmidt's funny and heartwarming coming-of-age story.
