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.

---

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.

---

Other Word Forms

• damage-control adjective

Example Sentences

Whittlesey said he suspects that the combination of flood-control requirements and damage control after the pipe failure is likely costing them tens of thousands of acre-feet of snowmelt.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 21, 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

But by the time he got there, his monologue had been transformed from a pure celebration of his overnight success into an exercise in damage control.

From Salon • Mar. 6, 2026

Inside Vanity Fair, a new editor in chief is doing damage control for the attention now fixed on one of his most high-profile hires.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025

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

From "Hole in My Life" by Jack Gantos