damn
Americanverb (used with object)
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to declare (something) to be bad, unfit, invalid, or illegal.
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to condemn as a failure.
to damn a play.
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to bring condemnation upon; ruin.
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to doom to eternal punishment or condemn to hell.
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to swear at or curse, using the word “damn”.
Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!
verb (used without object)
interjection
noun
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the utterance of “damn” in swearing or for emphasis.
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something of negligible value.
not worth a damn.
adjective
adverb
idioms
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give a damn, to care; be concerned; consider as important: Also give a darn.
You shouldn't give a damn about their opinions.
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damn with faint praise, to praise so moderately as, in effect, to condemn.
The critic damned the opera with faint praise when he termed the production adequate.
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damn well, damned.
interjection
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slang an exclamation of annoyance (often in exclamatory phrases such as damn it! damn you! etc)
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informal an exclamation of surprise or pleasure (esp in the exclamatory phrase damn me! )
adjective
adverb
adverb
verb
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to condemn as bad, worthless, etc
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to curse
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to condemn to eternal damnation
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(often passive) to doom to ruin; cause to fail
the venture was damned from the start
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(also intr) to prove (someone) guilty
damning evidence
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to swear (at) using the word damn
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informal as near as possible; very near
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to praise so unenthusiastically that the effect is condemnation
noun
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slang something of negligible value; jot (esp in the phrase not worth a damn )
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informal to be unconcerned; not care
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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damnsimple
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damnssimple
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have damnedperfect
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has damnedperfect
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am damningprogressive
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are damningprogressive
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is damningprogressive
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have been damningperfect progressive
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has been damningperfect progressive
Past
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damnedsimple
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had damnedperfect
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was damningprogressive
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were damningprogressive
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had been damningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of damn
1250–1300; Middle English dam ( p ) nen < Old French dam ( p ) ner < Latin damnāre to condemn, derivative of damnum damage, fine, harm
Explanation
Damn is a common, somewhat naughty exclamation. In one sense it means to condemn or send someone to hell, as in "God damn it!" Other times it means "a little amount," as in "I don't give a damn about baseball." People can give a damn, damn others to hell, and complain about the damn weather. Some religious people believe their sins could damn them to an eternity of torment and hellfire. You should be careful when peppering your speech with damn, as it might offend some ears. But sometimes damn can be used positively, as in "They make the best damn pizza in town!"
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:
Because until you’re successful, frankly, nobody gives a damn.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
Andy Robertson said on Tuesday that he didn't give a damn about permutations, but you can bet he knows all the detail that he needs to know.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
"He should resign, damn it!" shouted the crowd of farmers, laborers, miners, transport workers and teachers who brought traffic to a halt on the streets of the Andean city.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
Recently, one of my best friends asked me if I’d seen “Michael,” Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic that Salon’s movie critic Coleman Spilde hailed as “so damn weird.”
From Salon ● May 14, 2026
Me and Rondell dug in like it was the first time we’d seen food in a damn month, but Mong didn’t eat a bite.
From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña
As so often in this book, Mr. Smith, in an attempt to put the best face possible on the U.S.S.R., seems to be praising with faint damns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
"They ran an atrocious service and what damns them most is the last minute cancellations," he said.
From BBC ● May 11, 2023
“The Towering Inferno,” an easy target, is skewered; more boldly, Hawke leads into “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” with a Martin Ritt quotation that damns the blockbuster with faint praise.
From New York Times ● Jul. 21, 2022
Stone appears to give neither of these damns, opting for an approach that forgoes fidelity in favor of an aggressive examination of the internal and external forces laying siege to Lucia’s sanity.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 24, 2022
But all felt about it passionately; no one damned it with faint praise and no one praised it with faint damns.
From The Circus, and Other Essays and Fugitive Pieces by Kilmer, Joyce
Soft power be damned, Mr. Simms defines a great power in terms of its geography, population, number of nuclear weapons, size of its economy, network of military bases and resilience in the face of pain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026
Widow’s Bay’s founders damned themselves and all their descendants by burying their iniquity instead of living with it long enough to dispel it and learn from that mistake.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2026
Nature be damned, tech entrepreneurs like Bryan Johnson are all in on biohacking.
From Barron's ● May 21, 2026
"Oh, Jake," Brett said, "we could have had such a damned good time together."
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
And, most damning of all, he disappointed Lionel Messi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
When Jack pairs cut-outs of Manny’s stills with his audio, he forms a crude piece of damning evidence.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
Kevin Craven, chief executive of defence trade association, said Healey's resignation has "sent us reeling" and is "truly a damning reflection on the current state of affairs".
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026
This is a damning indictment of them, and our larger culture and society.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026
They were about to release their most damning evidence.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
