Definitions

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

  • noun One that deadens, restrains, or depresses.
  • noun An adjustable plate, as in the flue of a furnace or stove, for controlling the draft.
  • noun A device in various keyboard instruments for deadening the vibrations of the strings.
  • noun A mute for various brass instruments.
  • noun A device that eliminates or diminishes vibrations or oscillations, as of a magnetic needle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who or that which damps.
  • noun A kind of unfermented bread, made of flour and water, and generally baked on a stone.

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

  • noun A valve or movable plate in the flue or other part of a stove, furnace, etc., used to check or regulate the draught of air.
  • noun A contrivance, as in a pianoforte, to deaden vibrations; or, as in other pieces of mechanism, to check some action at a particular time.

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

  • noun Something that damps or checks:
  • noun Bread made from a basic recipe of flour, water, milk, and salt, but without yeast.
  • adjective comparative form of damp: more damp

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

  • noun a device that decreases the amplitude of electronic, mechanical, acoustical, or aerodynamic oscillations
  • noun a movable iron plate that regulates the draft in a stove or chimney or furnace
  • noun a depressing restraint

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From damp +‎ -er.

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Examples

Comments

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  • In Australian parlance, a kind of bread.

    November 27, 2007

  • "In his duffel bag he finds an old linty piece of damper and hunkers down by the fire, resisting the need to pee."

    Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, p 196 of the Graywolf Press hardcover edition

    April 1, 2010