Dictionary entry

Damn

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Damn (dăm), v. t. [imp. & p. p.Damned (dămd or dăm″nĕd); p. pr. & vb. n.Damning (dăm″ĭng or dăm″nĭng).] [OE. damnen dampnen (with excrescent p), OF. damner, dampner, F. damner, fr. L. damnare, damnatum, to condemn, fr. damnum damage, a fine, penalty. Cf. Condemn, Damage.] 1. To condemn; to declare guilty; to doom; to adjudge to punishment; to sentence; to censure.

He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him. Shak.

2. (Theol.) To doom to punishment in the future world; to consign to perdition; to curse.

3. To condemn as bad or displeasing, by open expression, as by denuciation, hissing, hooting, etc.

You are not so arrant a critic as to damn them... without hearing. Pope.

Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,

And without sneering teach the rest to sneer. Pope.

Damn is sometimes used interjectionally, imperatively, and intensively.