DAMPER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Damper

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/dˈæmpər/ Listen

noun

damper n. That which damps or checks; as:

(a)

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.

(b)

A contrivance, as in a pianoforte, to deaden vibrations; or, as in other pieces of mechanism, to check some action at a particular time. "Nor did Sabrina's presence seem to act as any damper at the modest little festivities."

adjective

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

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

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

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Etymology of 'Damper'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Damper" Quotes from Famous Books

... ascend the river a tempest arose, which kept me a weary prisoner among the reeds of the rice marsh. The hollow reeds made poor fuel for cooking, and when the dark, stormy night shut down upon me, the damp soil grew damper as the tide arose, until it threatened to overflow the land. For hours I lay in my narrow canoe waiting for the tidal flood to do its worst, but it receded, and left me without any means of building ...

— Voyage of The Paper Canoe • N. H. Bishop

... she was friends with everybody—even when she got into one of her tantrums, and took to jawing you, you couldn't help liking her—and knowing she wasn't feeling like she ought to feel put a big lot more of a damper on all hands. So we just kept on taking drinks and getting miserabler with 'em—and feeling all the time surer something was coming bouncing out at us from round the corner, and wondering what kind of a stir-up we was ...

— Santa Fe's Partner - Being Some Memorials of Events in a New-Mexican Track-end Town • Thomas A. Janvier

... said the advantages presented by the hut were few. It did protect them from the little chill breeze that stirred and it put a roof over their heads, although, as Clint said, if it rained before morning they'd probably find the roof of little account. On the other hand, it was damper than the outdoors and the mustiness was far from fragrant. They decided, however, to take up their quarters there until morning. Looking for the road was evidently quite useless, and, anyway, they were much too tired to tramp any longer. They found a place away from door and window where some ...

— Left Tackle Thayer • Ralph Henry Barbour

... the column was in motion again. Somehow, even Jimmy had sobered more or less. Something about the passing back and forth of the smoke communications must have put a damper on his spirits; though, a short time before, he had been fairly bubbling over with joy, because of the success that had recently ...

— Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay - The Disappearing Fleet • G. Harvey Ralphson

... overcoming this loss at least partially, he used an internal furnace with a smoke flue winding through the water in the form of a worm in a still. In order that the length of passage of the gases might not act as a damper on the fire, Dr. Allen recommended the use of a pair of bellows for forcing the sluggish vapor through the flue. This is probably the first suggested use of forced draft. In forming an estimate of the quantity of fuel lost up ...

— Steam, Its Generation and Use • Babcock & Wilcox Co.

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