DAMP • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Damp

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adjective

Damp adj. (compar. damper; superl. dampest)

1.

Being in a state between dry and wet; moderately wet; moist; humid. "O'erspread with a damp sweat and holy fear."

2.

Dejected; depressed; sunk. (R.) "All these and more came flocking, but with looks Downcast and damp."

noun

Damp n.

1.

Moisture; humidity; fog; fogginess; vapor. "Night... with black air Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom."

2.

Dejection; depression; cloud of the mind. "Even now, while thus I stand blest in thy presence, A secret damp of grief comes o'er my soul." "It must have thrown a damp over your autumn excursion."

3.

(Mining) A gaseous product, formed in coal mines, old wells, pints, etc.

Choke damp, a damp consisting principally of carbonic acid gas; so called from its extinguishing flame and animal life. See Carbonic acid, under Carbonic.

Damp sheet, a curtain in a mine gallery to direct air currents and prevent accumulation of gas.

Fire damp, a damp consisting chiefly of light carbureted hydrogen; so called from its tendence to explode when mixed with atmospheric air and brought into contact with flame.

verb

Damp v. i. (past & past part. damped; pres. part. damping)

1.

To render damp; to moisten; to make humid, or moderately wet; to dampen; as, to damp cloth.

2.

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. "To damp your tender hopes." "Usury dulls and damps all industries, improvements, and new inventions, wherein money would be stirring if it were not for this slug." "How many a day has been damped and darkened by an angry word!" "The failure of his enterprise damped the spirit of the soldiers."

See images of 'Damp'

Etymology of 'Damp'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Damp" Quotes from Famous Books

... confinement told on him far more than all the hardships of his journey. His health ran down, he began to fall ill. Then as bad luck would have it, walking in that damp, unwholesome cedar garden, out of which he might not stray, he contracted the germ of some kind of fever which in autumn was very common in this poisonous climate. Three days later he became delirious, and for a week after that hung between life and death. Well was it for him that ...

— The Yellow God - An Idol of Africa • H. Rider Haggard

... occasion," and here Harry's voice fluttered and faltered. No one noticed it, however, except the prisoner; if any neighbor eyes had watched him narrowly—but they were all fixed upon the witness—they would have seen his face whiten, and his brow grow damp. Why should she have laid that stress upon ...

— Bred in the Bone • James Payn

... that fine edifice, and proved the power of the soul over the body; for the fair and dainty man, the cavalier, the young blood, died when hope deserted him. Until then the nose of the chevalier was ever delicate and nice; never had a damp black blotch, nor an amber drop fall from it; but now that nose, smeared with tobacco around the nostrils, degraded by the driblets which took advantage of the natural gutter placed between itself and the upper lip,—that nose, which no ...

— An Old Maid • Honore de Balzac

... rock-roofed world till the river rose several inches while its colour turned to a dull yellow, then to a red, showing how heavy the rainfall had been in the back country. We had our rubber ponchos on but we were more or less damp and we began to notice that summer had passed for the air was chilly. The river was perfectly smooth making navigation easy and we were able to pull steadily along with no interruption from rapids. The walls ever increased their height while ...

— A Canyon Voyage • Frederick S. Dellenbaugh

... unseen agent which could be used against an enemy, and which was so destructive and powerful it would render their armies helpless. That secret was asphyxiating gas. His plan was on the field of battle when the wind was favorable to build large fires with tar and damp straw behind which an attack could be prepared. Then sulphur was to be thrown on these burning piles so as to produce gas, which blowing over the enemy would render them helpless. This would not produce a poisonous gas. It would only be an asphyxiating ...

— The Red Watch - With the First Canadian Division in Flanders • J. A. Currie

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