Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Destruction or a loss in value, usefulness, or ability resulting from an action or event.
  • noun Law Money required to be paid as compensation for an injury or wrong.
  • noun Informal Cost; price.
  • intransitive verb To cause damage to.
  • intransitive verb To suffer or be susceptible to damage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Harm; mischance; injury in general.
  • noun Hurt or loss to person, character, or estate; injury to a person or thing by violence or wrongful treatment, or by adverse natural forces; deterioration of value or reputation.
  • noun plural In law, the value in money of what is lost or withheld; the estimated money equivalent for detriment or injury sustained; that which is given or adjudged to repair a loss.
  • noun Cost; expense.
  • noun Synonyms Detriment, Harm, etc. (See injury.) Waste, etc. See loss.
  • To cause damage to; hurt; harm; injure; lessen the value or injure the interests or reputation of.
  • To receive damage or injury; be injured or impaired in soundness or value: as, a freshly cut crop will damage in a mow or stack.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To occasion damage to the soundness, goodness, or value of; to hurt; to injure; to impair.
  • intransitive verb To receive damage or harm; to be injured or impaired in soundness or value.
  • noun Injury or harm to person, property, or reputation; an inflicted loss of value; detriment; hurt; mischief.
  • noun (Law) The estimated reparation in money for detriment or injury sustained; a compensation, recompense, or satisfaction to one party, for a wrong or injury actually done to him by another.
  • noun See under Consequential.
  • noun (Law) damages imposed by way of example to others. Similar in purpose to vindictive damages, below.
  • noun (Law) those given for a violation of a right where no actual loss has accrued.
  • noun those given specially for the punishment of the wrongdoer.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The abstract measure of something not being intact; harm.
  • noun slang Cost or expense.
  • verb To make something less intact or even destroy it; to harm or cause destruction.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any harm or injury resulting from a violation of a legal right
  • noun loss of military equipment
  • noun the occurrence of a change for the worse
  • noun the act of damaging something or someone
  • verb suffer or be susceptible to damage
  • noun the amount of money needed to purchase something
  • verb inflict damage upon

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French : dam, loss (from Latin damnum) + -age, -age.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French damage (Modern French dommage), from Vulgar Latin *damnaticum from Classical Latin damnum.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word damage.

Examples

  • The problem can be simplified by assuming that the damage caused by a flood is proportional to a “damage index” D:

    Chapter 9 1991

  • - where a number of damage incidence combinations are available, it is possible to draw a “damage incidence distribution curve” (see fig.D. 2).

    1.1. Aims 1982

  • In the film, a female convict suffering from brain damage is implanted with the memories, skills and training of a CIA female agent who was recently killed.

    Today on ScreenHead.com 2010

  • Playing 21 shots and then getting brain damage from a tumble down the stairs is a terribly, terribly shitty way to celebrate a birthday. spookyu

    Hangover Cures: Myth, Legend, Fact | Lifehacker Australia 2010

  • Only thing to have with a can of brain damage is another can of brain damage.

    When you booze you lose « Awful Library Books 2010

  • What gives me brain damage, is the complexities of the x tonne concrete equals x tonnes carbon expended.

    Look How Clever We Are ! Newmania 2008

  • A man with brain damage is given a hormone treatment that has the effect of increasing his intelligence, only in this case it doesn't wear off, but keeps going.

    Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror: Stories Of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang Blue Tyson 2008

  • A man with brain damage is given a hormone treatment that has the effect of increasing his intelligence, only in this case it doesn't wear off, but keeps going.

    Archive 2007-04-01 Blue Tyson 2007

  • A man with brain damage is given a hormone treatment that has the effect of increasing his intelligence, only in this case it doesn't wear off, but keeps going.

    Archive 2007-05-01 Blue Tyson 2007

  • Realistically even if he had been able to cure the infected they would have severe brain damage from the high body temp. they sustained while infected.

    Eating and Watching Movies at the Same Time (The "I Am Legend" Not-Review) 2007

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.