damages
Britishplural noun
Explanation
Damages are the official amount of money awarded to the winner in a law suit. If you're hurt in a car accident that's another driver's fault, you may end up collecting damages. The legal term damages usually refers to money that's owed or received to compensate someone for a loss or an injury. If a business owner's negligence — not clearing ice from a sidewalk, for example — causes you to be injured, you can sue her for damages to pay for your broken arm and the days of work you had to miss. Sometimes a court awards "punitive damages" as well, which are specifically intended to punish the defendant.
Vocabulary lists containing damages
The Skin I'm In
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Hitler Youth
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City of the Plague God
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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.
The company warned investors that a loss in the New Mexico case alone could yield $3.7 billion in damages once the second phase of the trial has concluded.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
It damages DNA in liver cells and can create mutations that start tumor growth.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
But his lawyer, Daniel Taylor, read out an agreed statement, saying NGN had agreed to pay "substantial damages" and Akhtar's legal costs.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
The jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in damages.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
This alarmed the Nazi leaders, who worried that the damages would bankrupt the German insurance companies.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Definitions 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.
