harm
[verb]
Synonyms:
- injure, abuse, damage, hurt, ill-treat, maltreat, ruin, spoil, wound
[noun]
Synonyms:
- injury, abuse, damage, hurt, ill, loss, mischief, misfortune

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Antonyms: benefit
Contrasted words: aid, help, accommodation, benefaction, charity, favor, service, ameliorate, better, improve, avail, profit
Related Idioms: do violence to
Related Words: deleteriousness, banefulness, noxiousness, perniciousness, mischance, misfortune, misuse, impairment, marring, abuse, ill-use, maltreat, mistreat, molest, dilapidate, ruin, discommode, incommode, inconvenience, sabotage, sap, undermine

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English Thesaurus: damage, harm, spoil, vandalize, sabotage, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

I. harm¹ S3 W3 /hɑːm $ hɑːrm/ noun [uncountable]
[Word Family: noun: harm, harmlessness; adjective: unharmed, harmful ≠ harmless; verb: harm; adverb: harmlessly]
[Language: Old English; Origin: hearm]

1. damage, injury, or trouble caused by someone’s actions or by an event:
The scandal did his career a lot of harm.
Our children deserve protection from harm. ⇒ grievous bodily harm

2. come to no harm/not come to any harm to not be hurt or damaged:
She was relieved to see the children had come to no harm.

3. mean no harm/not mean any harm to have no intention of hurting or upsetting anyone:
She’s a terrible gossip but she means no harm.

4. there’s no harm in doing something/it does no harm to do something spoken used to suggest something to someone:
There’s no harm in trying.
It does no harm to ask.

5. it wouldn’t do somebody any harm to do something spoken used to suggest that someone should do something that may be helpful or useful to them:
It wouldn’t do you any harm to get some experience first.

6. out of harm’s way
a) if someone or something is out of harm’s way, they are in a place where they cannot be hurt or damaged:
Copies of your documents should be kept in a safe place, well out of harm’s way.
b) if something dangerous is out of harm’s way, it is in a place where it cannot hurt anyone or damage anything:
If you have small children, make sure that you store all medicines out of harm’s way.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

II. harm² verb [transitive]
[Word Family: noun: harm, harmlessness; adjective: unharmed, harmful ≠ harmless; verb: harm; adverb: harmlessly]

1. to have a bad effect on something:
chemicals that harm the environment

REGISTER
In everyday English, people usually say that something is bad for something rather than that it harms something:
chemicals that are bad for the environment

2. to physically hurt a person or animal:
The kidnappers didn’t harm him, thank God.

3. harm sb’s image/reputation to make people have a worse opinion of a person or group

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

harm
noun
ADJ. considerable, great, serious, untold He was clearly intent on inflicting serious harm on someone.
irreparable, lasting, permanent | emotional, mental, physical, psychological elderly people in danger of physical or emotional harm
economic, environmental
VERB + HARM cause, do, inflict The huge fall in exports has done a great deal of harm to the economy.
mean (sb), wish sb I'm sorry if I upset you?I didn't mean any harm. No one wishes you harm.
come to, suffer I don't think he'll come to any harm if his mother is with him.
keep sb from, prevent, protect sb from, shield sb from The children were removed from their parents to prevent harm to them. She tried to shield her child from harm.
HARM + VERB come to sb/sth I don't want any harm to come to these pictures.
PREP. ~ from babies at risk of serious harm from their parents
~ to the harm done to the environment
PHRASES more harm than good The drugs he was prescribed did him more harm than good.
out of harm's way The younger children were kept out of harm's way.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

harm
verb
ADV. seriously Misusing drugs in pregnancy can seriously harm your baby.
deliberately | physically
VERB + HARM intend to, want to He claimed that he had not intended to harm the girl.
try to

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

harm

do (something) harm
Try to choose products that do the least harm to the environment.
cause (somebody/something) harm
Very small amounts of the chemical cause no lasting harm.
inflict harm (=cause harm, especially physical harm)
None of us wants to inflict harm on another human being.
suffer harm
A child can be taken into care if he is or is likely to suffer significant harm.
prevent harm
He was put in a mental hospital to prevent harm to others.
great/serious/significant harm
If you drink too much alcohol, you can do yourself serious harm.
physical harm
They were afraid that he would do them some actual physical harm.
psychological/emotional harm
Depriving a child of love does irreparable emotional harm.
environmental harm
The report highlights the environmental harm caused by transporting goods around the world.
irreparable harm (=that cannot be made better)
The scandal has caused irreparable harm to his career.
lasting/permanent harm
The injury caused him discomfort but no lasting harm.
untold harm (=so much harm that it cannot be described completely)
This type of abuse can cause a child untold harm.
potential harm
People need to be more aware of the potential harm of being overweight.
do more harm than good (=cause more problems rather than improve a situation)
If you don’t warm up properly, exercise may do more harm than good.
no harm done spoken (=used to tell someone not to worry about something they have done)
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to push you.’ ‘Don’t worry, no harm done.’
where’s the harm in that? spoken (=used when you think that something seems reasonable, although other people may not)
Sure, he gets attention when he performs at a charity event, but where’s the harm in that?

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

harm
noun
DO · HAVE · MAKE · TAKE
Many phrases begin with a very common very such as do, make, have, or take : ‘I felt very nervous about taking the test but, after having a long talk with Mrs Fisher, I decided I would just do my best and try not to make too many silly mistakes .’ These verbs can be combined with some nouns but not with others and since they do not have a clear meaning of their own, choosing the right combination can be a problem. Phrases which tend to cause difficulty are shown below.
HAVE
have a bath (or esp. AmE take ) ‘She’s probably upstairs having a bath.’
Have (your) breakfast ‘We usually have breakfast in the kitchen.’
Have (your) dinner ‘We had dinner and then went for a walk.’
Have a drink ‘I’ll collapse if I don’t have a drink soon.’
Have (an) experience ‘He has no experience of running a large company.’
Have fun ‘You can’t stop people from having fun.’
Have a holiday ‘It’s almost a year since we had a real holiday.’
Have an interview ‘I’ve had six interviews but no one has offered me a job.’
Have a lesson ‘Every morning we have three fifty-minute lessons.’
Have (your) lunch ‘Isn’t it about time we had lunch?’
Have an operation ‘Before I had the operation I could hardly walk.’
Have a party ‘On Saturday we’re having a party.’
Have a picnic ‘If it’s sunny we could have a picnic.’
Have a shower (or esp. AmE take) ‘It only takes me a minute to have a shower.’
TAKE
Take/do an examination ‘Why do we have to take so many tests?’
Take (your) medicine ‘Don’t forget to take your medicine.’
Take a pill ‘He refuses to take sleeping pills.’
Take/do a test ‘The last test I took was a disaster.’
MAKE
Make an effort ‘I had to make a big effort not to laugh.’
Make a journey ‘It was the first journey he’d made all on his own.’
Make a mistake ‘He has made a serious mistake.’
Make a noise ‘How can one small child make so much noise?’
Make progress ‘I made very little progress at the start of the course.’
DO
Do your best ‘Don’t worry, Tim. Just do your best.’
Do (or cause) damage ‘The storm did a lot of damage to the crops.’
Do an exercise ‘Have you done your exercises today?’
Do an experiment ‘To do this experiment, you’ll need two eggs.’
Do (sb) good ‘The holiday has done him a lot of good.’
Do harm ‘A scandal would do his reputation a lot of harm.’
Do your homework ‘Have you done your homework yet?’
Do a job ‘I’ve got one or two jobs to do this evening.’
Do the/some shopping ‘Jake has gone into town to do some shopping.’
Do research ‘We need to do a lot more research.’
Do things ‘We’ve done lots of different things today.’
Do your training ‘Where did you do your training?’
Note also: do something/anything etc: ‘I can’t come now – I’m doing something.’ ‘He hasn’t done anything wrong.'

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Common Errors ▲

damage to cause physical harm to something or someone, or have a bad effect on them:
Several buildings were damaged by the earthquake.
The other car wasn’t damaged.
The scandal could damage his career.
harm to have a bad effect on something:
They use chemicals that will harm the environment.
The oil crisis could harm the economy.
spoil to have a bad effect on something and make it less successful, enjoyable, useful etc:
We didn’t let the rain spoil our holiday.
Local people say the new buildings will spoil the view.
vandalize to deliberately damage buildings, vehicles, or public property:
All the public telephones in the area had been vandalized.
sabotage /ˈsæbətɑːʒ/ to secretly damage machines or equipment so that they cannot be used, especially in order to harm an enemy:
There is evidence that the airplane was sabotaged.
tamper with something to deliberately and illegally damage or change a part of something in order to prevent it from working properly:
The car’s brakes had been tampered with.
desecrate to damage a church or other holy place:
The church had been desecrated by vandals.
deface /dɪˈfeɪs/ to deliberately spoil the appearance of something by writing on it, spraying paint on it etc:
Someone had defaced the statue and painted it bright orange.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

harm to have a bad effect on someone or something:
Many women said parenthood harmed their careers.
A little hard work never harmed anyone.
damage to harm something badly. Damage is more serious than harm:
His reputation was damaged and his career was in ruins.
The affair has damaged people’s confidence in the government.
be bad for somebody/something to be likely to harm someone or something:
Too much fatty food is bad for you.
All this rain is bad for business.
be detrimental to something formal to be bad for something:
The new housing development will be detrimental to the character of this small town.
impair formal to harm something, especially someone’s ability to do something or the correct working of a system:
Any amount of alcohol that you drink will impair your ability to drive.
His vision was impaired.
prejudice /ˈpredʒədəs, ˈpredʒʊdəs/ to have a bad effect on the future success of something:
Don’t do anything to prejudice our chances of winning.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

prejudice an unreasonable dislike and distrust of people who are different from you in some way, especially because of their race, sex, religion etc:
racial prejudice
prejudice against women
discrimination the practice of treating one group of people differently from another in an unfair way:
There is widespread discrimination against older people.
the laws on sex discrimination
intolerance an unreasonable refusal to accept beliefs, customs, and ways of thinking that are different from your own:
religious intolerance
There is an atmosphere of intolerance in the media.
bigotry a completely unreasonable hatred for people of a different race, religion etc, based on strong and fixed opinions:
religious bigotry
the bigotry directed at Jews and other ethnic groups
racism/racial prejudice unfair treatment of people because they belong to a different race:
Many black people have been the victims of racism in Britain.
Some immigrant groups faced racism, for example Jews and Italians, while others, such as Scandinavians, did not.
sexism the belief that one sex, especially women, is weaker, less intelligent etc than the other, especially when this results in someone being treated unfairly:
sexism in language
She accused him of sexism.
ageism (also agism American English) unfair treatment of people because they are old:
The new law aims to stop ageism in the workplace.
homophobia prejudice towards or hatred of gay people:
homophobia in the armed forces
xenophobia /ˌzenəˈfəʊbiə $ -ˈfoʊ-/ hatred and fear of foreigners:
the xenophobia of the right-wing press
anti-Semitism a strong feeling of hatred toward Jewish people:
Is anti-Semitism on the increase?
Islamophobia hatred and fear of Muslims:
the rise of Islamophobia and right-wing extremism in Europe
gay/union/America etc bashing unfair public criticism of gay people, union members, the American government etc:
The minister was accused of union bashing.
There's so much America-bashing in the liberal press.
racist someone who treats people of other races unfairly or badly:
When he expressed his opinion, he was branded a racist.
bigot someone who has strong unreasonable opinions, especially about race or religion:
a racist bigot
sexist someone, especially a man, who believes that their sex is better, more intelligent, more important etc than the other:
Will the sexists ever support a female President?
harm to have a bad effect on someone or something:
Many women said parenthood harmed their careers.
A little hard work never harmed anyone.
damage to harm something badly. Damage is more serious than harm:
His reputation was damaged and his career was in ruins.
The affair has damaged people’s confidence in the government.
be bad for somebody/something to be likely to harm someone or something:
Too much fatty food is bad for you.
All this rain is bad for business.
be detrimental to something formal to be bad for something:
The new housing development will be detrimental to the character of this small town.
impair formal to harm something, especially someone’s ability to do something or the correct working of a system:
Any amount of alcohol that you drink will impair your ability to drive.
His vision was impaired.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲