Quranic root
هزم
h · z · m
The root centers on pressing or crushing something so that it breaks or collapses inward, with extensions to defeat, rout, depression, and broken or crashing sounds.
The physical image of crushing develops into battlefield defeat and rout. Related Classical usages include hollows, cracked or broken materials, thunderous sound, copious rain, and several specialized expressions.
- Maqāyīs · row 4889
- Mufradāt · row 1522
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
هَزَمَ
hazama
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To defeat, rout, or overcome an opposing force.
The Quran uses the Form I verb both actively, for defeating an opponent, and passively, for being defeated; the voice changes the grammatical perspective rather than the lexical sense.
- Mufradāt · row 1522
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:251word 1
“So they defeated them”
Quran 54:45word 1
“Soon will be defeated”
مَهْزُومٌ
mahzūmun
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Defeated or routed.
A passive participle describing one that has suffered defeat; the Quranic occurrence describes a host, without making that object class a lexical restriction.
- Mufradāt · row 1522
Selected Quran examples
Quran 38:11word 4
“(they will be) defeated”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:251فَهَزَمُوهُمSo they defeated them
- 38:11مَهْزُومٌۭ(they will be) defeated
- 54:45سَيُهْزَمُSoon will be defeated
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 12 Classical meanings
هَزْمٌ
Pressing or crushing a dry object by hand until it collapses inward and breaks.
A physical use; the cited produce examples illustrate the construction rather than limiting the class of objects to which it may apply.
- Maqāyīs · row 4889
- Mufradāt · row 1522
هَزِيمَةٌ
Defeat or rout, especially in war.
The verbal noun for the result of being defeated; this is a distinct nominal headword from the Quranic Form I verb and passive participle.
- Mufradāt · row 1522
هَزِيمٌ
Bursting forth or copious, said of rain.
A conventional descriptive use with rain.
- Maqāyīs · row 4889
هَزِيمُ الرَّعْدِ
The sound of thunder, conceived as breaking or crackling.
The related expression هَزَمَ الرَّعْدُ describes the thunder's sound as breaking.
- Maqāyīs · row 4889
- Mufradāt · row 1522
تَهَزَّمَ السِّقَاءُ
A waterskin dried and cracked.
A conventional intransitive construction describing the condition of a dried skin or waterskin.
- Maqāyīs · row 4889
اِهْتَزَمَتِ الشَّاةُ
To slaughter a sheep.
A specialized derived-verb usage.
- Maqāyīs · row 4889
هَزْمَةٌ
The purring or throat sound of a cat.
A specialized noun for the characteristic sound.
- Lane · entry 17109
هَزْمَةٌ
A depression, dint, pit, or small hollow.
Used for bodily hollows and more generally for a depression in a surface or the ground; cited bodily locations are examples, not an exclusive restriction.
- Lane · entry 17109
- Maqāyīs · row 4889
هَازِمَةُ الدَّهْرِ
A crushing affliction inflicted by fate.
An idiomatic expression for a calamity regarded as breaking or crushing a person.
- Mufradāt · row 1522
اِنْهَزَمَ
To be routed, discomfited, defeated, or put to flight.
A Form VII derived verb, distinct from the Quranic Form I group; the attested wording describes an army being routed.
- Lane · entry 17108
مَهْزُومُ الصَّدْرِ
Depressed in the chest; figuratively, apparently illiberal or niggardly.
An idiomatic وصف with الصدر; the figurative interpretation is explicitly qualified as apparent.
- Lane · entry 17110
مِهْزَامٌ
A stick with fire placed at its end, used as a children's toy.
A specialized item explicitly treated as outside the root's main semantic pattern.
- Maqāyīs · row 4889
- Mufradāt · row 1522
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Classical Form VII verb اِنْهَزَمَ is kept separate from the Quranic Form I verb هَزَمَ despite their related defeat meanings.
مِهْزَامٌ is included as a lexical item recorded with the root evidence but explicitly distinguished from the root's main semantic pattern.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The Mufradat phrase ويقولون للرجل الطبع: هَزَمَ واهْتَزَمَ reports an additional usage, but the packet does not make the exact meaning of this expression sufficiently clear for confident dictionary assignment. Source: mufradat:row:1522.