curse

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An appeal or prayer for evil or misfortune to befall someone or something.
2. n. The evil or misfortune that comes in or as if in response to such an appeal: bewailed the curse of ill health.
3. n. One that is accursed.
4. n. A source or cause of evil; a scourge: "Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race” ( William Ewart Gladstone).
5. n. A profane word or phrase; a swearword.
6. n. Ecclesiastical A censure, ban, or anathema.
7. n. Slang Menstruation. Used with the.
8. v. To invoke evil or misfortune upon; damn.
9. v. To swear at.
10. v. To bring evil upon; afflict: was cursed with crippling arthritis.
11. v. Ecclesiastical To put under a ban or an anathema; excommunicate.
12. v. To utter curses; swear.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The expression of a wish of evil to another; an imprecation of evil; a malediction.
2. n. Evil which has been solemnly invoked upon one.
3. n. That which brings or causes evil or severe affliction or trouble; a great evil; a bane; a scourge: the opposite of blessing: as, strong drink is a curse to millions.
4. n. Condemnation; sentence of evil or punishment.
5. To wish evil to; imprecate or invoke evil upon; call down calamity, injury, or destruction upon; execrate in speech.
6. Hence To put under ecclesiastical ban or anathema; excommunicate; condemn or sentence to the disabilities of excommunication.
7. To bring or place a curse upon; blight or blast with a curse or malignant evils; vex, harass, or afflict with great calamities.
8. To utter imprecations; affirm or deny with imprecations of divine vengeance; use blasphemous or profane language; swear.
9. n. Literally, a cress: in popular use identified with curse, an imprecation, and used only as a symbol of utter worthlessness in certain negative expressions: as, “not worth a curse,” “to care not a curse,” etc.

Wiktionary

1. n. A supernatural detriment or hindrance; a bane.
2. n. A prayer or imprecation that harm may befall someone.
3. n. A vulgar epithet.
4. n. UK, slang A woman's monthly period.
5. v. transitive To place a curse upon (a person or object).
6. v. transitive To speak or shout a vulgar curse or epithet at someone or something.
7. v. intransitive To use offensive or morally inappropriate language.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To call upon divine or supernatural power to send injury upon; to imprecate evil upon; to execrate.
2. v. To bring great evil upon; to be the cause of serious harm or unhappiness to; to furnish with that which will be a cause of deep trouble; to afflict or injure grievously; to harass or torment.
3. v. To utter imprecations or curses; to affirm or deny with imprecations; to swear.
4. n. An invocation of, or prayer for, harm or injury; malediction.
5. n. Evil pronounced or invoked upon another, solemnly, or in passion; subjection to, or sentence of, divine condemnation.
6. n. The cause of great harm, evil, or misfortune; that which brings evil or severe affliction; torment.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. heap obscenities upon
2. v. utter obscenities or profanities
3. n. something causing misery or death
4. v. wish harm upon; invoke evil upon
5. n. a severe affliction
6. n. an appeal to some supernatural power to inflict evil on someone or some group
7. n. an evil spell
8. n. profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger
9. v. exclude from a church or a religious community