damage
Americannoun
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damages
plural
-
injury or harm that reduces value or usefulness.
The storm did considerable damage to the crops.
- Synonyms:
- loss
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Law. damages, the estimated money equivalent for detriment or injury sustained.
-
Informal. Often damages. cost; expense; charge.
What are the damages for the lubrication job on my car?
verb (used with object)
-
damages,
present (3rd person singular)
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damaged,
past participle, past
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damaging
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
damages,
present (3rd person singular)
-
damaged,
past participle, past
-
damaging
present participle
noun
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injury or harm impairing the function or condition of a person or thing
-
loss of something desirable
-
informal cost; expense (esp in the phrase what's the damage? )
verb
-
(tr) to cause damage to
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(intr) to suffer damage
Synonym Usage
Damage, detriment, harm, mischief refer to injuries of various kinds. Damage is the kind of injury or the effect of injury that directly impairs appearance, value, usefulness, soundness, etc.: Fire causes damage to property. Detriment is a falling off from an original condition as the result of damage, depreciation, devaluation, etc.: Overeating is a detriment to health. Harm may denote either physical hurt or mental, moral, or spiritual injury: bodily harm; harm to one's self-confidence. Mischief may be damage, harm, trouble, or misfortune caused by a person, especially if maliciously: an enemy who would do one mischief.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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damageabilitynoun
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damageablenessnoun
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damagernoun
-
predamagenoun
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redamageverb (used with object)
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damageableadjective
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damagingadjective
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nondamageableadjective
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quasi-damagedadjective
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undamageableadjective
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undamagedadjective
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damaginglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
damagesimple
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damagessimple
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have damagedperfect
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has damagedperfect
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am damagingprogressive
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are damagingprogressive
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is damagingprogressive
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have been damagingperfect progressive
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has been damagingperfect progressive
Past
-
damagedsimple
-
had damagedperfect
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was damagingprogressive
-
were damagingprogressive
-
had been damagingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of damage
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French, equivalent to dam (from Latin damnum “damage, fine”) + -age -age; see damn
Explanation
When you damage something you hurt it in a way that makes it less valuable or useful. Say you throw a baseball and it flies over your friend's head and cracks your dad's windshield. Congratulations, you've damaged your dad's car. Damage can also be a noun. That crack in the windshield? It doesn't matter whether you 'fess up or blame your friend or a giant falling acorn. It made the car less valuable and harder to drive, therefore it is considered damage. Another meaning of damage implies the damage done to your wallet when you buy something. In a restaurant, you might hear someone ask "What's the damage?" when the check comes to the table.
Vocabulary lists containing damage
"Handle with Care"
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"The Clever Magistrate"
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New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964)
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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.
See Examples For:
Berney in his email offered to reimburse Afram’s company for the missing drive or create a new digital cinema package, but Afram said the damage was much greater than that, according to the lawsuit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
"Instead of causing liver damage, GDF15 appears to help calm the liver's immune system. It shifts immune cells into a more protective and less active state, helping reduce inflammation and prevent damage to the liver."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
There’s also a risk that doing this could eventually damage my daughter’s relationship with her own children.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
“And in some cases the damage is more about perception. If it’s a very remarkable site that’s hit, then it’s a symbolic victory for the enemy.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
“The poor dear. The damage that those weeds must be doing to her follicles, I shudder to think.”
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
But the court reduced the $45.2 million in punitive damages awarded by a jury to $1.5 million, citing limits under Texas law.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
Afram and his production company sued Netflix last month for at least $105 million in economic damages for the missing drive that contained “Fortitude,” a movie starring Cage and Sir Ben Kingsley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Legal scholars have debated whether surrogates should pay legal damages if they fail to honor a contractual abortion provision, surrender payments remaining on the contract, or even pay back money they already received.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
CK Hutchison launched international arbitration against Panama, seeking over $1.5 billion in damages for the destruction of its port investments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
He’d also been convicted of fraud for a scam in which he got an obituary of himself published, then sued the newspaper for libel and damages up to $100 million.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
“You see people you care about and have always admired starting to get damaged and broken,” Dychtwald said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 23, 2026
It was damaged in the 19th century, but a computer reconstruction shows what it may have looked like.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
At least three people have been injured and buildings have been damaged after an earthquake struck Peru, local officials have said.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Safety equipment on the out-of-service line was damaged before the fire but not fixed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Perhaps his badly damaged knees caused him constant pain.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
In this context, even Yabloko’s meek peace platform was too potentially damaging to permit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
To those of us who have worked in digital assets for years, this is a familiar movie, and we know how damaging the ending can be without federal pre-emption.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
Around 2,000 had been evacuated from nearby villages as the fire ripped through the surrounding hills, damaging homes and destroying cars in the early hours.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
In a letter to university staff, Prof Deborah Prentice said she knows there is "anger and anxiety around this damaging and difficult case" and she shares concerns raised by those in Cambridge and beyond.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Already in there you can see the consciousness of how damaging he regards the appearance of bad faith, and how penetrat- ingly the orator is exposed to his audience.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
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.
