damp
[damp]
- slightly wet; moist: damp weather; a damp towel.
- unenthusiastic; dejected; depressed: The welcoming committee gave them a rather damp reception.
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- moisture; humidity; moist air: damp that goes through your warmest clothes.
- a noxious or stifling vapor or gas, especially in a mine.
- depression of spirits; dejection.
- a restraining or discouraging force or factor.
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- to make damp; moisten.
- to check or retard the energy, action, etc., of; deaden; dampen: A series of failures damped her enthusiasm.
- to stifle or suffocate; extinguish: to damp a furnace.
- Acoustics, Music. to check or retard the action of (a vibrating string); dull; deaden.
- Physics. to cause a decrease in amplitude of (successive oscillations or waves).
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- damp off, to undergo damping-off.
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Origin of damp
1300–50; Middle English (in sense of def. 4); compare Middle Dutch damp, Middle High German dampf vapor, smoke
Synonyms
See more synonyms for damp on Thesaurus.com1. dank, steamy. 3. dankness, dampness, fog, vapor. 7. humidify. 8. slow, inhibit, restrain, moderate, abate.
Synonym study
1. Damp, humid, moist mean slightly wet. Damp usually implies slight and extraneous wetness, generally undesirable or unpleasant unless the result of intention: a damp cellar; to put a damp cloth on a patient's forehead. Humid is applied to unpleasant dampness in the air: The air is oppressively humid today. Moist denotes something that is slightly wet, naturally or properly: moist ground; moist leather.
Antonyms
1. dry.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for damp
Contemporary Examples
With me tagging along, they dove into a rudimentary, damp shelter they had dug in a wood nearby.
It insists on efficiency standards for household appliances so that your towels come out of the dryer refreshingly cool and damp.
The damp, gray Beaver State is attracting the most incoming movers of any other state, according to a new survey.
Outside a late-autumn storm was building and the air in the room was damp.
The elevator descended with a draft," he writes, "chilling Ethel in all the damp spots.
Historical Examples
They were putting on outer clothes from the store-room to protect them from the dirt and damp.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
Dick, vaguely conscious of damp and dirt, went up to his bedroom.
VivietteWilliam J. Locke
He passed his hand across his damp forehead, for he felt faint with dread.
VivietteWilliam J. Locke
The damp snow packed on Blondey's hoofs, so that he was walking on snowballs.
A Woman TenderfootGrace Gallatin Seton-Thompson
In damp weather it is sometimes difficult to get the froth stiff.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various BranchesEliza Leslie
damp
- slightly wet, as from dew, steam, etc
- archaic dejected
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- slight wetness; moisture; humidity
- rank air or poisonous gas, esp in a mineSee also firedamp
- a discouragement; damper
- archaic dejection
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- to make slightly wet
- (often foll by down) to stifle or deadento damp one's ardour
- (often foll by down) to reduce the flow of air to (a fire) to make it burn more slowly or to extinguish it
- physics to reduce the amplitude of (an oscillation or wave)
- music to muffle (the sound of an instrument)
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See also damp off
Word Origin
C14: from Middle Low German damp steam; related to Old High German demphen to cause to steam
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for damp
n.
early 14c., "a noxious vapor," perhaps in Old English but there is no record of it. If not, probably from Middle Low German damp; ultimately in either case from Proto-Germanic *dampaz (cf. Old High German damph, German Dampf "vapor;" Old Norse dampi "dust"). Sense of "moisture, humidity" is first certainly attested 1706.
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v.
late 14c., "to suffocate," from damp (n.). Figurative meaning "to deaden (the spirits, etc.)" attested by 1540s. Meaning "to moisten" is recorded from 1670s. Related: Damped; damping.
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adj.
1580s, "dazed," from damp (n.). Meaning "slightly wet" is from 1706. Related: Dampness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper