Quranic root
خسأ
kh · s · ʾ
The root centers on removal, driving away, and forcing something to withdraw.
The core sense of expelling develops into withdrawal at a distance, a resulting state of humiliation or contempt, and the recoiling or dimming of sight. Related derived usages include mutual stone-throwing and gambling.
- Maqāyīs · row 1577
- Mufradāt · row 405
- Lane · entry 19069
- Lane · entry 19070
- Lane · entry 19074
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 4
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
خَسَأَ
khasaʾa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To drive away, repel, or chide away; in the imperative, to order someone to go away or be gone.
The Quranic imperative expresses removal to a distance with anger. The same lexical branch also has an intransitive use meaning to go away after being driven away or chidden.
- Lane · entry 19069
- Mufradāt · row 405
Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:108word 2
“Remain despised”
خَاسِئٌ
khāsiʾun
- Part of speech
- Active participle / adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
Repelled, driven away, or made to withdraw.
An active-participial or adjectival description of one forced away or kept at a distance; in the Quranic plural expression, it describes a repelled state.
- Lane · entry 19074
- Mufradāt · row 405
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:65word 12
“despised”
Despised, contemptible, vile, or abject.
An adjectival description of a humiliated or disgraced state, including the Quranic plural description of the transformed people.
- Lane · entry 19074
- Mufradāt · row 405
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:65word 12
“despised”
Quran 7:166word 11
“despised”
Of the sight: recoiling or withdrawing in humiliation; dazzled, confused, or dim.
Used in the Quranic expression describing the returning gaze. The lexical evidence reports recoiling, withdrawal, contemptibility, and impaired sight as interpretive alternatives of this construction.
- Lane · entry 19074
- Mufradāt · row 405
Selected Quran examples
Quran 67:4word 8
“humbled”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:65خَـٰسِـِٔينَdespised
- 7:166خَـٰسِـِٔينَdespised
- 23:108ٱخْسَـُٔوا۟Remain despised
- 67:4خَاسِئًۭاhumbled
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 6 Classical meanings
خَسَأَ
To become vile, despised, hated, or abject.
A figurative or secondary verbal extension from being driven away.
- Lane · entry 19069
خَسَأَ
Of the sight, to become dazzled, confused, or dim.
A figurative application of the verb to visual perception.
- Lane · entry 19069
خَاسَأَ
To throw stones at one another or engage in mutual stone-throwing.
A reciprocal Form III usage.
- Lane · entry 19070
خَاسَأَ
To contend in a game of hazard; to gamble.
A derived Form III usage.
- Lane · entry 19070
خَسِىْءٌ
Bad wool.
Applied to wool of poor quality.
- Lane · entry 19073
خَاسِئٌ
Driven away, repelled, and not suffered to approach people.
A specific conventional application to a dog, swine, or devil.
- Lane · entry 19074
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The expression in 67:4 has several explicitly reported interpretations: a recoiling or withdrawing gaze, a contemptible or repelled gaze, and dazzled, confused, or dim sight.