“Cushy” describes a comparatively fortunate or light wound received in battle. In Wilfred Owen’s First World War context, it contrasts with being “wounded—bad”: a cushy wound may offer escape from the front line, perhaps through evacuation to hospital, without the terrible consequences of a severe injury. The term is bitterly ironic, since even a “fortunate” wound is still the result of violence and danger.

In general modern English, “cushy” often means easy, comfortable, or requiring little effort, as in a “cushy job.” Its Military sense retains the idea of relative comfort or good fortune. During the First World War, soldiers sometimes hoped for a minor wound that would send them away from the trenches; this could be called a “cushy wound.” A related First World War term is “Blighty wound,” an injury serious enough to require evacuation to Britain (“Blighty”) but not necessarily fatal. In the poem, the speaker says, “next time please I’ll thank ’im for a blighty,” expressing a similarly grim wish. “Cushy” should not be read as meaning painless or harmless. In Owen’s poem, the word reflects soldiers’ dark humor and the distorted standards of safety created by trench warfare.