Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Slightly wet. See Synonyms at wet.
- adj. Archaic Dejected.
- n. Moisture in the air; humidity.
- n. Foul or poisonous gas that sometimes pollutes the air in coal mines.
- n. Lowness of spirits; depression.
- n. A restraint or check; a discouragement.
- v. To make damp or moist; moisten.
- v. To extinguish (a fire, for example) by cutting off air.
- v. To restrain or check; discourage.
- v. Music To slow or stop the vibrations of (the strings of a keyboard instrument) with a damper.
- v. Physics To decrease the amplitude of (an oscillating system).
- damp off Botany To be affected by damping off.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Moist air; humidity; moisture.
- n. A poisonous vapor; specifically, in mining, a stifling or poisonous gas. See black-damp, fire-damp.
- n. A fog.
- n. A check; a discouragement.
- n. Depression of spirits; dejection.
- Moist; humid; moderately wet: as, a damp cloth; damp air.
- Clammy.
- Dejected; depressed.
- Synonyms Humid, Dank, etc. See moist.
- To moisten; make humid or moderately wet; dampen.
- To extinguish; smother; suffocate.
- To suffocate with damp or foul air in a mine. [Eng.]
- To check or retard the force or action of: as, to damp a fire by covering it with ashes; especially, to diminish the range or amplitude of vibrations in, as a piano-string, by causing a resistance to the motions of the vibrating body. Both the vibrations and the vibrating body are said to be damped. Usually applied to acoustic vibrations, but also to slower oscillations.
- To make dull or weak and indistinct, as a sound or a light; obscure; deaden.
- To depress; deject; discourage; deaden; check; weaken.
- Specifically To diminish or destroy the oscillation of (a metallic body in motion in a magnetic field). When a conductor is moved in a magnetic field, or when a magnet is moved in the vicinity of a conductor, there will be, in general, an induced current generated which will oppose the motion to which it is due. The moving body will act as if immersed in a viscous liquid, and will more quickly come to rest. Advantage is taken of this fact in stilling the vibrations of a magnetic needle in a galvanometer or a compass by placing masses of conducting metal near the vibrating body. Damping is also accomplished by attaching to the needle a disk, cylinder, or vane, which swings in a liquid or in air.
- [Dampen is now more common in the literal sense, and is sometimes used in the derived senses.]
- Synonyms To moderate, allay, dispirit.
- In horticulture, to rot or waste away, as the stems and leaves of seedlings and other tender plants, when the soil and atmosphere in which they are vegetating are too wet or cold: with off: as, flower-seedlings in hotbeds are especially liable to damp off.
- n. The popular name of a disease which attacks young seedlings and succulent plants, causing them to rot off near the surface of the ground. An excessively moist atmosphere is particularly favorable for its development, Pythium De Baryanum is responsible for most of the “damp” in cucumbers, egg-plants, peas and similar plants while a species of Rhizoctonia causes this disease in cotton, and Alternaria, tennis produces the effect in tobacco. Also called
damping off .
Wiktionary
- adj. Being in a state between dry and wet; moderately wet; moist.
- adj. obsolete Pertaining to or affected by noxious vapours; dejected, stupified.
- n. Moisture; humidity; dampness.
- n. archaic Fog; fogginess; vapor.
- n. archaic Dejection or depression.
- n. archaic, mining A gaseous product, formed in coal mines, old wells, pits, etc.
- v. transitive, archaic To dampen; to render damp; to moisten; to make humid, or moderately wet; as, to damp cloth.
- v. transitive, archaic To put out, as fire; to depress or deject; to deaden; to cloud; to check or restrain, as action or vigor; to make dull; to weaken; to discourage.
- v. transitive To suppress vibrations (mechanical) or oscillations (electrical) by converting energy to heat (or some other form of energy).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Moisture; humidity; fog; fogginess; vapor.
- n. Dejection; depression; cloud of the mind.
- n. (Mining) A gaseous product, formed in coal mines, old wells, pints, etc.
- adj. Being in a state between dry and wet; moderately wet; moist; humid.
- adj. rare Dejected; depressed; sunk.
- v. To render damp; to moisten; to make humid, or moderately wet; to dampen.
- v. To put out, as fire; to depress or deject; to deaden; to cloud; to check or restrain, as action or vigor; to make dull; to weaken; to discourage.
WordNet 3.0
- v. deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping
- v. make vague or obscure or make (an image) less visible
- v. lessen in force or effect
- n. a slight wetness
- v. restrain or discourage
- adj. slightly wet
Etymologies
- Akin to Low German damp, Dutch damp, and Danish damp ("vapor, steam, fog"), German Dampf, Icelandic dampi, Swedish damm ("dust"), and to German dampf imperative of dimpfen ("to smoke"). Also Old English dampen ("to choke, suffocate"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, poison gas, perhaps from Middle Dutch, vapor. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Microwave corn on the cob peeled and wrapped in damp paper towels for 90 seconds.”
Microwaving Beats Boiling For Veggies | Lifehacker Australia
“Molds thrive in damp areas with decaying materials.”
“It also means crouching in damp sand at playgrounds and wiping snotty noses and shitty bums and worrying constantly about whether or not you remembered to restock the diaper bag and, also, refill your Ativan prescription.”
“The yaw damp is part of the autopilot system that helps stabilizes the tail, and the pitch trim the craft's up and down movement.”
““Tell him not to shoot!” the man begged, his skin damp with sudden sweat.”
“Arrows are expensive, and can warp in damp weather.”
“It remains a visual shortcut through which young persons of a certain damp emotional climate can broadcast to the other members of their tribe who they are.”
“I'm guessing that there's much more chance of things arriving damp from the Seattle area where the humidity is out of sight, than from Saudi Arabi. cauny”
“Light billowed out of her, and warmth in damp gusts as if from a garden after a rainstorm.”
“I slept with a smile on my face, my eyes slightly damp from the emotion, and with hope in my heart.”
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Take Five Interview: Juliet Marillier and Heir to Sevenwaters
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘damp’.
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steffany(grade 2)
accident, agree, arrive, astronomy, attention, award, aware, balance, banner, bare, base, beach and 127 more...
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jackgrade2
accident, agree, arrive, astronomy, atlas, attention, award, aware, balance, banner, bare, base and 127 more...
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Adjectives
sagacious, average, angry, mad, crazy, giant, ugly, pretty, happy, sad, lonely, solitary and 119 more...
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understatements
certain words seem given to usage in understatement, as pat phrases, by the mechanism of cliché; others because restraint, moderation or ambiguity are implicit in the words' definitions; and others...
no love lost, a minor inconveni..., that could have g..., he chose poorly, crossing the stre..., I've got a feelin..., slight miscalcula..., oh bother, not amused, no fun, a bit much, a little under th... and 55 more...
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Words I dislike
bodacious, falafels, moist, fjord, strengths, stewardesses, damp, dank, no homo, crappucino, cunt, phlegm and 1 more...
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Kingly epithets
Take one of CharlesFerdinand's excellent Merovingians or Goths, add a "the" and one of these descriptors, and presto, a character for your long-planned spoof fantasy novel.
unlikely, chuckleheaded, aloof, lacklustre, slow, murky, neurotic, clichéd, pediculous, dour, bungling, dandy and 23 more...
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bepetersen's list
Words that I think should be banned from the English language
spittle, supper, crusty, moist, engorged, crotch, sinew, salve, suckle, mauve, damp, squat and 34 more...
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You're All Wet!
Wet words
dripping, soaked, flooded, drenched, plastered, flowing, wringing, torrential, h2o'd, splashed, skeezing, thirsted and 21 more...
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vile, so vile!
the bad, and the ugly...
moist, wet, ointment, chunk, saliva, damp, lick, runny, piddle, salivate, clammy, crust and 4 more...
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wetwords
anything wet
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GCI
spinster, maiden, happy-go-lucky, homonym, ill-at-ease, saw red, out of sorts, hot under the collar, taken aback, pen-names, alias, shoelaces and 378 more...
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sort of sexy
pressure, press, urgency, squeezing, influence, compel, push, tease, thrust, full, drive, urge on and 99 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3063 more... -
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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English
rewarding, wit, landmark, core, soar, drop, plunge, plummet, dive, level off, rocket, peak and 110 more...
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My List
A list of words that I have generated over time.
cairn, cacodaemoniacal, abash, abject, abjure, abstemious, abhor, abnegate, abnegation, abscond, abstruse, acclivity and 702 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for damp.

CJ2A Soft rubber mounts were installed to 'damp' the machine's vibrations. Often the word 'dampen' is used incorrectly in this sense. Apr 19, 2009