damn
/dam/ • verb 1 (be damned) (in Christian belief) be condemned by God to eternal punishment in hell. 2 harshly condemn. 3 curse. • exclamation informal expressing anger or frustration. • adjective informal used to emphasize anger or frustration. — PHRASES as near as damn it as close to being accurate as makes no difference. damn all Brit. informal nothing. damn with faint praise praise so unenthusiastically as to suggest condemnation. not be worth a damn informal have no value. — ORIGIN Latin dampnare ‘inflict loss on’, from damnum ‘loss, damage’.
Perform another search of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary
About this dictionary
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English contains 145,000 words, phrases, and definitions.
Find out more about Oxford's range of English dictionaries
Sign up for the AskOxford Word of the Day
Search the Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Search the Concise Dictionary of First Names
| 
