WOUNDING

6 definitions found across Law Mind sources

WOUNDINGAuthored
The Law Mind • 955 words
Definition
In criminal law, wounding is the offense of unlawfully inflicting a wound upon another person. Historically treated as an aggravated form of battery, it requires more than mere touching or bruising — the injury must involve a break in the skin or some equivalent dangerous hurt to the body. In jurisdictions that distinguish degrees of wounding, the offense may be elevated by intent to maim, disfigure, or cause grievous bodily harm. The core distinction from ordinary battery is the severity and character of the physical injury inflicted.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Present participle and gerund of "wound" — the act of injuring or hurting. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To wound is to hurt by violence; to injure the body so as to cause a breach of the skin or underlying tissue. The common and legal meanings are close but not identical. In ordinary language, "wounding" describes any injurious act, including emotional harm. In law, wounding is a technical offense with a threshold — not every injury qualifies. The legal definition requires a physical wound of sufficient severity to distinguish it from simple assault or battery, and historically that threshold was tied to breaking the skin or causing "dangerous hurt." Researchers should not assume the colloquial sense maps cleanly onto statutory or common law definitions, particularly in historical sources.
Common Confusion
Wounding is frequently confused with assault and battery in historical legal writing, where all three terms appear in overlapping contexts. The distinction matters: assault involves the apprehension of harm (no contact required), battery is unlawful physical contact, and wounding is battery of a more aggravated character involving actual bodily injury. In modern statutory systems, wounding may also be conflated with "grievous bodily harm" or "mayhem" — related but distinct offenses. Mayhem historically required permanent injury to a limb or organ useful in combat; wounding did not require permanence.
Why It Matters in Research
This term presents a significant definitional trap across historical and modern sources. In pre-20th-century common law materials, wounding is defined broadly as "an aggravated species of battery" involving "dangerous hurt" — language drawn directly from Blackstone. That definition is repeated nearly verbatim across Black's (both editions), Bouvier's, and Burrill's, suggesting less that the sources agree than that they are all copying Blackstone without independent elaboration. Burrill's is the most useful of the four for research purposes: it alone flags that the term acquired a more specific sense under 19th-century English statutes, citing Russell on Crimes. This is critical. The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (England and Wales) created distinct statutory offenses of unlawful wounding and wounding with intent, requiring a break in the skin — a narrower and more precise standard than Blackstone's "dangerous hurt." American jurisdictions generally did not adopt this statutory framework wholesale, so researchers working in U.S. sources will find "wounding" operating as a common law aggravated battery rather than a separate codified offense in many states. Researchers should take care when moving between English and American sources: the English statutory refinements that shaped 19th-century treatise writing do not necessarily reflect American practice. Russell on Crimes, cited by Burrill, is an English treatise and its definitions track English statute law. American state codes from the same period may use "wounding" as a descriptive term rather than a formal offense category. In modern American law, the term "wounding" as a standalone charge has largely been absorbed into aggravated assault, aggravated battery, or specific injury offense statutes. Its appearance in contemporary legal materials is more likely to be descriptive than technical.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries reproduce the same definition with minimal variation: wounding is an aggravated species of battery consisting in giving another some dangerous hurt, citing 3 Blackstone's Commentaries 121. This unanimity reflects the dominance of Blackstone as the organizing authority for 19th-century American legal reference works rather than independent legal analysis. Bouvier adds that wounding is "the offense of inflicting a wound" — tautological but useful as confirmation that the term functions as a criminal charge, not merely a descriptive act. Burrill alone gestures toward the term's evolution, noting it has had "a more specific sense given to it under recent English statutes" and directing the reader to Russell on Crimes. This is the most analytically honest of the four entries and the most valuable for researchers trying to understand the term's doctrinal trajectory. What the historical dictionaries collectively miss: any treatment of how wounding interacts with intent, any discussion of gradations (wounding with intent vs. unlawful wounding), and any sustained engagement with American statutory practice. A researcher relying solely on these sources would have an accurate but thin picture — adequate for understanding the common law baseline, insufficient for understanding how the offense was charged and tried in practice.
Jurisdictional Note
In England and Wales, statutory wounding under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 requires a break in the continuity of the skin, making it narrower than the common law definition. American jurisdictions vary significantly: some retain wounding as a distinct statutory offense (particularly in military law, where "maiming and wounding" appears in the Uniform Code of Military Justice), while most have folded the concept into aggravated assault or battery statutes without using the term. Researchers working in 19th-century American state materials should check whether the jurisdiction had codified the offense independently of the English model.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Assault and Battery; Mayhem; Offenses Against the Person
Related Terms
Battery — Aggravated Assault — Mayhem — Grievous Bodily Harm — Wound — Malicious Wounding — Assault — Unlawful Wounding — Bodily Harm — Homicide (for fatal wounds) — Malice Aforethought
WOUNDINGmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
An aggravated species of assault and battery, consisting in one per- son giving another some dangerous hurt. 3 Bl. Comm. 121. Wreccum maris significat illa bona quæ naufragio ad terram pelluntur. A wreck of the sea signifies those goods which are driven to shore from a shipwreck.
WOUNDINGmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
An aggravated species of ‘assnult and battery, consisting in one per- ‘son giving another some‘ dangerous hurt. 3 Bl. Comm. 121. Wreccum maris significat illa bona que naufragio ad terram pelluntur. A wreck of the sea signifies those goods which ‘are driven to shore from a shipwreck.
WOUNDINGmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
The offense of inflicting a wound. An aggravated species of bat- tery, consisting in giving another some dangerous hurt. 3 Bl. Com. 121. WRECK (called in law Latin wreccum maris, and in law French wrec de mer). Such goods as after a shipwreck are cast upon the land by the sea, and left there within some country so as not to belong to the jurisdiction of the admiralty, but to the common law. Co. 2d Inst. 167; 1 Bla. Com. 290. A ship becomes a wreck when, in consequence of injuries received, she is rendered absolutely unnavigable, or unable to pursue her voyage, without repairs ex- ceeding the half of her value; 6 Mass. 479. A sunken vessel is not a wreck, but dere- lict; wreck applies to property cast upon land by the sea; 7 N. Y. 555; 38 Fed. Rep. 503. See SUNKEN WRECK. Goods found at low water, between high and low water mark, and goods between the same limits partly resting on the ground, but still moved by the water, are wreck; 8 Hagg. Adm. 257, 294. Wreck, by the common law, belongs to the king or his grantee; but if claimed by the true owner within a year and a day the goods, or their proceeds, must be restored to him, by virtue of stat. Westm. I., 3 Edw. I. c. 4. Ships and goods found derelict or abandoned at sea belonged until lately to the office of the lord high admiral, by a grant from the crown, but now belong to the national exchequer, subject, however, to be claimed by the true owner within a year and a day; 1 Hagg. 383. But in America the king's right in the sea-shore was transferred to the colonies, and therefore wreck cast on the sea-shore belongs to the owner of the shore, as against a mere stranger, if not reclaimed; 13 Pick. 255. See, also, 113 Mass. 377. In this country, the several states border- ing on the sea have enacted laws provid- ing for the safekeeping and disposition of property wrecked on the coast. In one case, it was held that the United States succeeded to the prerogative of the British crown, and are entitled to derelict ships or goods found at sea and unclaimed by the true owner; but in the southern district of Florida it is held that such derelicts, in the absence of any act of congress on the subject, belong to the finder or salvor, subject to the claim of the true owner for a year and a day. Marv. Wreck. Steal- ing from a wrecked or distressed ship, etc., wilfully obstructing the escape of any person endeavoring to save his life there- from, showing false lights, or extinguishing any true one, with intention to bring any vessel, etc., into danger, distress, or ship- wreck, are made felony, punishable by fine and imprisonment, by act of congress of March 3, 1825; R. S. § 5358; 12 Pet. 72. Wrecked goods upon a sale or other act of voluntary importation become liable to duties; 9 Cra. 387. See SALVAGE; TOTAL Loss.
woundingverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
present participle and gerund of wound
woundingnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
The act of inflicting a wound. | An instance of being wounded.

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