damned
Americanadjective
-
damnedest,
superlative
-
damndest
superlative
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condemned or doomed, especially to eternal punishment.
the wailing of damned souls.
-
detestable; loathsome.
Get that damned dog out of here!
-
complete; absolute; utter.
a damned nuisance; a damned fool.
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Informal. extraordinary; amazing.
It was the damnedest thing I'd ever seen.
noun
adverb
idioms
adjective
adverb
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(intensifier)
a damned good try
a damned liar
I should damned well think so!
-
used to indicate amazement, disavowal, or refusal (in such phrases as I'll be damned and damned if I care )
Other Word Forms
Adjective Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of damned
First recorded in 1350–1400, damned is from the Middle English word dam(p)ned. See damn, -ed 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Damned if you do, damned if you don't," she says.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
They soon understand that to be heartbroken is to be damned to know the exquisite pain of being alive.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
“Sometimes you gotta get off social media and demand answers. Cuz I’ll be damned if my ‘husband’ is a clown and we’re not at the circus.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Now interest in vintage Jeeps, Land Rover Defenders and Ford Broncos is surging for women who will pay top dollar for old cars, never-ending upkeep be damned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
He believed that that damned canoe had given him the right to serve as shepherd and savior.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
We move on to another patchwork team doing its damndest to defy the odds.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2024
Marvel has an extensive catalogue of characters to anoint as the next generation of Avengers; it’s also doing its damndest to make the X-Men cool again.
From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2019
Stomping around in woolly tights and Fair Isle cardies, Wilson does her damndest to pull off frumpiness, but who’s she kidding?
From The Guardian ● Sep. 15, 2018
One had to do with the other: The simpler the system was, the less the players had to worry about anything but trying their damndest to execute it.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2012
You know that fellow is the damndest bore I was ever up against!
From John Marsh's Millions by Arthur Hornblow
No doubt the TikTok amateur detectives would’ve momentarily shifted from true crime to the Chaplin twins, trying their damnedest to debunk what only the sisters could truly understand.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
"It can't achieve strategic surprise but it will try its damnedest to achieve operational and tactical surprise. That will involve concealment, camouflage, deception, misinformation which they used quite successfully last autumn."
From Reuters ● Jun. 14, 2023
To that moment, he had done his damnedest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2022
“I just think that it’s a really major part of the American contribution to the history of comedy. I like to try my damnedest to keep it alive,” he said.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 7, 2022
“Colonel, I watched that from above. Colonel, that was the damnedest thing I ever saw.”
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
