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!
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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!
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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:
Black candidates made historic inroads in statewide elections for offices like the Senate, which are not affected by redrawing individual district maps; and in the House, Black candidates won many contested seats, gerrymandering be damned.
From Slate ● Nov. 5, 2026
Not for the first time, it finds itself in no-win situation, damned no matter which course of action it takes in the absence of some negotiated plan.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
The author of the novel “Cloud Six” on conversations with angels, sojourns in limbo and one memorable journey to the world of the damned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Ellison’s father recently took Oracle out of Redwood City, first to Austin, Texas, then to Nashville, workers be damned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
He was one of those who are damned to love once.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
He rang his boss, the head of the political section: "I said, you know, Jim, this is the damndest thing."
From BBC ● May 6, 2019
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
Neither, it turns out, are Green Day, who do their damndest to avoid anyone seeing their "secret" NME/Radio 1 stage set on Saturday morning.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 26, 2012
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
Try to make her realise that, whatever may be my faults—my crimes, if it comes to that—I've done my damndest out there to make reparation.
From The Red Planet by William John Locke
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
“We will do our damnedest but it’s hard to fight them all.”
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2022
“We’re doing our damnedest to keep cooler heads here, to let cooler heads prevail,” said Scott Seus, a family farmer who relies on water from the lake.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2021
“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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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
