Wiktionary

damp

See also: DAMP and Damp

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English dampen (“to stifle; suffocate”). Akin to Low German damp, Dutch damp, and German Dampf (“vapor, steam, fog”), Icelandic dampi, Swedish damm (“dust”), and to German dampf imperative of dimpfen (“to smoke”). Also Middle English dampen (“to extinguish, choke, suffocate”). Ultimately all descend from Proto-Germanic *dampaz.

Pronunciation

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  • enPR: dămp, IPA(key): /dæmp/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -æmp

Adjective

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damp (comparative damper, superlative dampest)

  1. In a state between dry and wet; moderately wet; moist.
    • 25 January 2017, Leena Camadoo writing in The Guardian, Dominican banana producers at sharp end of climate change
      Once the farms have been drained and the dead plants have been cut down and cleared, farmers then have to be alert for signs of black sigatoka, a devastating fungus which flourishes in damp conditions and can destroy banana farms.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 364, lines 84-85:
      She said no more. The trembling Trojans hear,
      O'erspread with a damp sweat and holy fear.
    The lawn was still damp so we decided not to sit down.
    The paint is still damp, so please don't touch it.
  2. (figuratively) Despondent; dispirited, downcast.
  3. Permitting the possession of alcoholic beverages, but not their sale.
    • 2002, Dana Stabenow, A Fine and Bitter Snow, →ISBN, page 32:
      The Roadhouse was twenty-seve miles down the road from Niniltna, nine feet and three inches outside the Niniltna Native Association's tribal jurisdiction, and therefore not subject to the dry law currently in effect. Or was it damp? Kate thought it might have changed, yet again, at the last election, from dry to damp, or maybe it was from wet to damp.

Usage notes

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Damp commonly is used for disagreeable conditions and moist often is used for agreeable conditions:

  • damp clothes
  • moist cake
  • a damp compress (hot or cold)
  • a moist, sweaty brow

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Noun

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damp (countable and uncountable, plural damps)

  1. Moisture; humidity; dampness.
    • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      Ere twice in murk and occidental damp / Moist Hesperus hath quench’d his sleepy lamp,
    • 1764, Elizabeth Griffith, Amana‎[1], London: W. Johnston, act V, page 49:
      What means this chilling damp that clings around me! / Why do I tremble thus!
    • 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 10, in Mary Barton‎[2]:
      Unceasing, soaking rain was falling; the very lamps seemed obscured by the damp upon the glass, and their light reached but to a little distance from the posts.
    • 1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 5, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:
      But what was worse, damp now began to make its way into every house—damp, which is the most insidious of all enemies, for while the sun can be shut out by blinds, and the frost roasted by a hot fire, damp steals in while we sleep; damp is silent, imperceptible, ubiquitous.
    • 2005, Kazuo Ishiguro, chapter 10, in Never Let Me Go, London: Faber, published 2010, page 115:
      We sometimes kept our Wellingtons on the whole day, leaving trails of mud and damp through the rooms.
  2. (archaic) Fog; fogginess; vapor.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      Night […] with black air / Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom.
    • 1810, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Elizabeth Shelley, “Warrior”, in Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire‎[3], London: John Lane, published 1898, page 57:
      Her chilling finger on my head,
      With coldest touch congealed my soul—
      Cold as the finger of the dead,
      Or damps which round a tombstone roll—
    • 1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter XL, in The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
      Summer was ending: in the daytime singing insects hung in every sunbeam; vegetation was heavy nightly with globes of dew; and after showers creeping damps and twilight chills came up from the hollows.
  3. (archaic) Dejection or depression; something that spoils a positive emotion (such as enjoyment, satisfaction, expectation or courage) or a desired activity.
    • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 35:
      Ev’n now, while thus I stand blest in thy Presence, / A secret Damp of Grief comes o’er my Thoughts,
    • 1728, George Carleton (attributed to Daniel Defoe), The Memoirs of an English Officer, London: E. Symon, p. 72,[4]
      But though the War was proclaim’d, and Preparations accordingly made for it, the Expectations from all receiv’d a sudden Damp, by the as sudden Death of King William.
    • 1769, [Edmund Burke], Observations on a Late State of the Nation, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 33:
      It is in this ſpirit that ſome have looked upon thoſe accidents, that caſt an occaſional damp upon trade.
    • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
      No sentiment of shame gave a damp to her triumph.
    • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “I Become Neglected, and am Provided for”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:
      […] Mrs. Gummidge […] , I am sorry to relate, cast a damp upon the festive character of our departure, by immediately bursting into tears […]
    • 1866, James David Forbes, letter to A. Wills dated 2 January, 1866, in Life and Letters of James David Forbes, London: Macmaillan, 1873, p. 429,[5]
      […] I was concerned to hear from your brother that Mrs. Wills’ health had prevented her accompanying you to Sixt as usual. It must have thrown a damp over your autumn excursion […]
  4. (mining, archaic or historical) A gaseous product, formed in coal mines, old wells, pits, etc.
    • 1733, John Arbuthnot, chapter 1, in An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies‎[6], London: Jacob Tonson, page 19:
      There are sulphurous Vapours which infect the Vegetables, and render the Grass unwholsom to the Cattle that feed upon it: Miners are often hurt by these Steams. Observations made in some of the Mines in Derbyshire, describe four sorts of those Damps.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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damp (third-person singular simple present damps, present participle damping, simple past and past participle damped)

  1. (transitive, archaic) To dampen; to make moderately wet
    Synonym: moisten
    to damp cloth
  2. (transitive, archaic) To put out, as fire; to weaken, restrain, or make dull.
    • 1887, Sir John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life:
      How many a day has been damped and darkened by an angry word!
    • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Book 1 Chapter 34”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC:
      My Lords, that I am yet to be told that it behoves a Minister of this free country to set bounds to the philanthropy, to cramp the charity, to fetter the public spirit, to contract the enterprise, to damp the independent self-reliance of its people.
    • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
      The failure of his enterprise damped the spirit of the soldiers.
    • 1744, Mark Akenside, The Pleasures of the Imagination:
      I do not mean to wake the gloomy form Of superstition dress'd in wisdom's garb, To damp your tender hopes
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the chapter)”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
      Usury dulls and damps all industries, improvements, and new inventions, wherein money would be stirring if it were not for this slug
  3. (transitive) To suppress vibrations (mechanical) or oscillations (electrical) by converting energy to heat (or some other form of energy).
    • 1960 February, “The first of London's new Piccadilly Line trains is delivered”, in Trains Illustrated, page 93:
      Hydraulic shock absorbers are used to damp out vertical and lateral oscillations.

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Anagrams

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Danish

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Danish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia da

Etymology

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From German Low German Damp (compare dampen, Dampen n), eventually from Proto-Germanic *dampaz.

Noun

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damp c (singular definite dampen, plural indefinite dampe)

  1. steam

Inflection

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Declension of damp
common
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative damp dampen dampe dampene
genitive damps dampens dampes dampenes

Verb

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damp

  1. imperative of dampe

Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle Dutch damp, from Old Dutch *damp, from Proto-Germanic *dampaz.

Noun

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damp m (plural dampen, diminutive dampje n)

  1. vapour (UK), vapor (US)
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • Negerhollands: damp
  • → Aukan: dampu
  • → Papiamentu: dam, damp
  • → Sranan Tongo: dampu

Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

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damp

  1. inflection of dampen:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
    3. imperative

Middle English

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Noun

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damp

  1. (when preceding labials) Alternative form of dan

Norwegian Bokmål

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Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology 1

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From German Low German Damp (compare dampen, Dampen n).

Noun

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damp m (definite singular dampen, indefinite plural damper, definite plural dampene)

  1. steam
  2. vapour (UK), vapor (US)
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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Verb

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damp

  1. imperative of dampe

References

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Norwegian Nynorsk

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Etymology

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From German Low German Damp (compare dampen, Dampen n).

Noun

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damp m (definite singular dampen, indefinite plural dampar, definite plural dampane)

  1. steam
  2. vapour (UK), vapor (US)

Derived terms

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References

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Swedish

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Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sv

Alternative forms

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from English DAMP (“deficits in attention, motor control and perception”).

Noun

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damp c

  1. DAMP (a controversial psychiatric diagnosis made mainly in Sweden and Denmark, now abolished, similar to ADHD)
  2. (slang, figurative, often in compounds) hyperactivity, going crazy, etc.
    Vilken damp-unge.
    What a hyper kid.
    Jag får damp på dom.
    They drive me crazy.
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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Verb

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damp

  1. past indicative of dimpa

Further reading

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Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=damp&oldid=82540774"
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