detriment

American  

[de-truh-muhnt] / ˈdɛ trə mənt /

noun

1. loss, damage, disadvantage, or injury.

2. a cause of loss or damage.

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detriment British  

/ ˈdɛtrɪmənt /

noun

1. disadvantage or damage; harm; loss

2. a cause of disadvantage or damage

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Related Words

See damage.

Etymology

Origin of detriment

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English from Middle French, from Latin dētrīmentum “loss, damage,” from dētrī- ( see detritus) + -mentum -ment

Explanation

Detriment is the hurt or harm as a result of damage, loss, or a bad decision. The developers won the lawsuit, much to the detriment of the people who live near the construction site. The meaning of detriment has not changed much from its roots in the Latin word, detrimentum, which is "a rubbing off, loss, damage, defeat." A detriment is a loss that wears you down. Smoking is a detriment to good health, as is standing in the snow barefooted. To the detriment of the people who clean the floors, we gave the girls scrambled eggs right before gymnastics class.

Example Sentences

But I am not ignorant still; that as Discoveries have been this way preserved, so many others nave been lost, to the great Detriment of the Publick.

From An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East Indies Together with an Account of the Detaining in Captivity the Author and Divers other Englishmen Now Living There, and of the Author's Miraculous Escape by Knox, Robert

Detriment must not be understood absolutely here, as if the envious person lost something or failed to obtain something on account of the other person.

From Moral Theology A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities by Callan, Charles Jerome

Indeed they agree so little in this Disease, that even the Patient's natural Sleep at the Invasion of this Complaint, is rather to his Detriment.

From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David)

I do abstain, but grumblingly, and to my great Detriment too.

From Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. by Erasmus, Desiderius

As these Men deserve well of your Office, so such as act to the Detriment of our Health, you ought to represent to themselves and their Fellow-Subjects in the Colours which they deserve to wear.

From The Spectator, Volume 2. by Addison, Joseph

Related Words

• disadvantage