Damn
adj, adv, intj, noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 The word "damn" employed as a curse. sometimes, vulgar
"He said a few damns and left."
- 2 Abbreviation of diaminomaleonitrile. abbreviation, alt-of, uncountable
"Several nitrogen heterocycles, including imidazoles,¹⁻³ pyrazines,⁴ and diazepines,^(1, 3) have been prepared from diaminomaleonitrile (DAMN, 1), the tetramer of hydrogen cyanide."
- 3 something of little value wordnet
- 4 A small, negligible quantity, being of little value; a whit or jot. sometimes, vulgar
"The new hires aren't worth a damn."
- 5 Acronym of distributed architecture for mobile navigation. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable
"The Distributed Architecture for Mobile Navigation (DAMN) has been successfully used to integrate various independently developed subsystems, providing systems that perform road following, cross-country navigation, or teleoperation while avoiding obstacles and meeting mission objectives."
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- 6 The smallest amount of concern or consideration. sometimes, vulgar
"I don't give a damn."
- 1 To condemn. intransitive, transitive
"The official position is that anyone who does this will be damned for all eternity."
- 2 wish harm upon; invoke evil upon wordnet
- 3 To condemn; to declare guilty; to doom; to adjudge to punishment.
"He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him."
- 4 To put out of favor; to ruin; to label negatively.
"I’m afraid that if I speak out on this, I’ll be damned as a troublemaker."
- 5 To condemn as unfit, harmful, invalid, immoral or illegal.
"1708 November 8, Alexander Pope, letter to Henry Cromwell You are not so arrant a critic as to damn them [the works of modern poets] […] without hearing."
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- 6 To curse; put a curse upon. sometimes, vulgar
"That man stole my wallet. Damn him!"
- 7 To invoke damnation; to curse. archaic
"c. 1767-1774, Oliver Goldsmith, letter to Mrs. Bunbury […] while I inwardly damn."
- 1 Generic intensifier. Fucking; bloody. not-comparable, sometimes, vulgar
"Shut the damn door!"
- 1 expletives used informally as intensifiers wordnet
- 2 used as expletives wordnet
- 1 Very; extremely. not-comparable, sometimes, vulgar
"That car was going damn fast!"
- 1 extremely wordnet
- 1 Used to express anger, irritation, disappointment, annoyance, contempt or surprise, etc. See also dammit. sometimes, vulgar
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"I don't give a damn about poetry."
Etymology
From Middle English dampnen, from Old French damner, from Latin damnāre (“to condemn, inflict loss upon”), from damnum (“loss”).
Related phrases
More for "damn"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.