Dictionary-Definition.com :: Smarting definition

Definition of 'smarting'

noun

A kind of pain such as that caused by a wound or a burn or a sore [syn: smart, smarting, smartness]

From: GCIDE

Smart \Smart\ (sm[aum]rt), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Smarted; p. pr. & vb. n. Smarting.] [OE. smarten, AS. smeortan; akin to D. smarten, smerten, G. schmerzen, OHG. smerzan, Dan. smerte, Sw. sm[aum]rta, D. smart, smert, a pain, G. schmerz, OHG. smerzo, and probably to L. mordere to bite; cf. Gr. smerdno`s, smerdale`os, terrible, fearful, Skr. m[.r]d to rub, crush. Cf. Morsel.]
1. To feel a lively, pungent local pain; -- said of some part of the body as the seat of irritation; as, my finger smarts; these wounds smart. --Chaucer. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
2. To feel a pungent pain of mind; to feel sharp pain or grief; to suffer; to feel the sting of evil; as, the team is still smarting from its loss of the championship. [1913 Webster]
No creature smarts so little as a fool. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it. --Prov. xi. 15. [1913 Webster]