damage control

American  

noun

1. a department or group, as aboard a naval vessel, responsible for taking action to control damage caused by fire, collision, etc.

2. any efforts, as by a company, to curtail losses, counteract unfavorable publicity, etc.

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damage control Idioms  

1. Measures to minimize or curtail loss or harm. For example, As soon as they discovered the leak to the press, the senator's office worked night and day on damage control. Used literally since the 1950s, specifically for limiting the effect of an accident on a ship, this term began to be used figuratively in the 1970s.

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Other Word Forms

• damage-control adjective

Example Sentences

Deploying botanical damage control, drawings were overlaid with the outlines of luxuriant trees.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

The Navy acknowledged the reports of toilet problems in a statement last month, but cited ship leadership as saying that "clog incidents are addressed promptly by trained damage control and engineering personnel, with minimal downtime."

From Barron's • Mar. 17, 2026

A day after federal prosecutors announced that the catastrophic Palisades fire was caused by the rekindling of a smaller arson fire days earlier, Los Angeles city officials were in damage control mode.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2026

President Bola Tinubu has even stepped in to try and resolve the tensions, setting up a high-level committee to do some damage control.

From BBC • Nov. 12, 2025

Visiting him again was a risk, but I needed to do some damage control.

From "Hole in My Life" by Jack Gantos