damnify

American  

[dam-nuh-fahy] / ˈdæm nəˌfaɪ /

verb (used with object)

Law.

damnified, damnifying

1. to cause loss or damage to.

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damnify British  

/ ˈdæmnɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. law to cause loss or damage to (a person); injure

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Other Word Forms

• damnification noun
• undamnified adjective

Etymology

Origin of damnify

1505–15; < Middle French damnifier, Old French < Late Latin damnificāre, derivative of Latin damnific ( us ) harmful, equivalent to damn ( um ) damage + -ificus ( see -i-, -fic); see -ify

Example Sentences

"Alexander commanded his soldiers neither to damnify Pindarus, the poet, nor any of his family."

From Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters by Earle, John

But seeing it was our happs to damnify each other unwillingly, let us be content with our harms, and lay the fault where it was, and so become friends.

From Fair Em by Shakespeare (spurious and doubtful works)

Secondly, a man may damnify another by preventing him from obtaining what he was on the way to obtain.

From Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint

In Haverhill, in 1708, young women were permitted to build pews, provided they did not "damnify the Stairway."

From Sabbath in Puritan New England by Earle, Alice Morse