Meaning of harm In English

• 0 physical or other injury or damage:

  • Both deny conspiring to cause actual bodily harm.

  • A mistake like that will do his credibility a lot of harm.

  • Missing a meal once in a while never did anyone any harm.

  • You could always ask Jim if they need any more staff in his office - (there's) no harm in asking (= no one will be annoyed and you might benefit).

  • She meant no harm (= did not intend to offend) - she was only joking.

  • She was frightened by the experience but she came to no harm (= was not hurt).

• 1 to hurt someone or damage something:

  • Thankfully no one was harmed in the accident.

  • The government's reputation has already been harmed by a series of scandals.

• 2 physical or other injury or damage:

  • Missing a meal once in a while won’t do you any harm.

  • Fortunately, she didn’t come to any harm when the car skidded.

  • Maybe Jim can help you – there’s no harm in asking (= no one will be annoyed and you might benefit).

• 3 damage done to something:

  • The board failed to prove irreparable harm in its suit against the council.

  • The harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized.

  • not do (any) harm to sb/sth The bond offers great benefits for issuers without doing any harm to investors.

  • economic/environmental/financial harm

• 4 used to say that an action is not helpful and could make a situation worse:

  • Suspending payments on government debts would do more harm than good.

• 5 to damage something or make something worse:

  • harm the economy/environment/country Economists warned that such a spending pattern could not be sustained without harming the economy.

  • harm business/industry