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damn (dăm)
Share:
v. damned, damn·ing, damns
v.tr.
1.
a. To condemn to everlasting punishment or another terrible fate in the afterlife; doom: "the ancient belief that souls of the deceased who had been damned for certain sins could rise from their graves and wander the countryside between dusk and dawn" (Rudy Chelminski).
b. To condemn to an undesirable fate; destine: was damned to live out his life in poverty.
c. To bring about the failure of; ruin: Insufficient funding damned the project.
2. To denounce or criticize severely: a movie that was damned by the critics.
3. To swear at; curse.
v.intr.
To swear; curse.
interj.
Used to express anger, irritation, contempt, or disappointment.
n.
1. The saying of "damn" as a curse.
2. Informal The least valuable bit; a jot: not worth a damn.
adv. & adj.
Damned.
Idiom:
damn well
Without any doubt; positively: I am damn well going to file charges against him.
[Middle English dampnen, from Old French dampner, from Latin damnāre, to condemn, inflict loss upon, from damnum, loss.]
damning·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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