detriment

American  

[de-truh-muhnt] / ˈdɛ trə mənt /

noun

1. loss, damage, disadvantage, or injury.

2. a cause of loss or damage.

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detriment British  

/ ˈdɛtrɪmənt /

noun

1. disadvantage or damage; harm; loss

2. a cause of disadvantage or damage

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Synonym Usage

See damage.

Etymology

Origin of detriment

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English from Middle French, from Latin dētrīmentum “loss, damage,” from dētrī- ( see detritus) + -mentum -ment

Explanation

Detriment is the hurt or harm as a result of damage, loss, or a bad decision. The developers won the lawsuit, much to the detriment of the people who live near the construction site. The meaning of detriment has not changed much from its roots in the Latin word, detrimentum, which is "a rubbing off, loss, damage, defeat." A detriment is a loss that wears you down. Smoking is a detriment to good health, as is standing in the snow barefooted. To the detriment of the people who clean the floors, we gave the girls scrambled eggs right before gymnastics class.

Example Sentences

Indeed they agree so little in this Disease, that even the Patient's natural Sleep at the Invasion of this Complaint, is rather to his Detriment.

From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David)

I do abstain, but grumblingly, and to my great Detriment too.

From Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. by Erasmus, Desiderius

The Portion, which Nature gave me, proves now my Detriment; my Beauty is an Obstacle to my Marriage; an honest Shop-keeper cannot keep a Wife to look upon.

From The Levellers A Dialogue Between Two Young Ladies, Concerning Matrimony, Proposing an Act for Enforcing Marriage, for the Equality of Matches, and Taxing Single Persons by Anonymous

Detriment must not be understood absolutely here, as if the envious person lost something or failed to obtain something on account of the other person.

From Moral Theology A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities by Callan, Charles Jerome

The Princess of Modena’s Residence with them has not been to their Detriment; for they have contracted149 a courtly Behaviour, to which the Italians are pretty much Strangers.

From The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume II Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels From Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts. by P?llnitz, Karl Ludwig von

Related Words

• disadvantage