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.
-
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.
-
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
-
has been damningperfect progressive
Past
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damnedsimple
-
had damnedperfect
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was damningprogressive
-
were damningprogressive
-
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:
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
The number of licensed toys I had as a kid for characters I really didn’t give a damn about is embarrassingly exorbitant.
From Salon ● Jun. 6, 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
Temperamentally, I do not give a damn what my neighbors own; I have zero envy.
From MarketWatch ● May 13, 2026
Ever since European history last week and those damn pink triangles...it’s as if quitting trig opened up a channel of thinking I was pushing away.
From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King
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
Sand is essential for constructing buildings, roads, hydroelectric damns and solar panels.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 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
The world absorbs our sap, and damns us for our putrid remains.
From Ghetto Comedies by Zangwill, Israel
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
This is the question hanging over Shulman, the co-founder and CEO of AI music-generator Suno, who thinks anyone with a laptop should be able to create music—piano or guitar lessons be damned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026
Many of our children’s favorite apps and social-media sites were built from the ground up to keep young users hooked and helpless to look away, consequences to their health and well-being be damned.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 27, 2026
Instead, he hollered to Robbie, “Do something worthwhile with those damned hands of yours. Get over here and play me a game of pool.”
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
And with technology growing as rapidly as it is, it behooves the company’s bottom line to avoid damning and disparaging devices outright.
From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2026
This is a damning indictment of them, and our larger culture and society.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026
In addition to the damning text exchange, Flores also has history on his side.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
The fact that Djokovic is the most plausible title contender is a damning indictment on the rest.
From BBC ● May 28, 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.
