damage control

American  

noun

1. a department or group, as aboard a naval vessel, responsible for taking action to control damage caused by fire, collision, etc.

2. any efforts, as by a company, to curtail losses, counteract unfavorable publicity, etc.

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damage control Idioms  

1. Measures to minimize or curtail loss or harm. For example, As soon as they discovered the leak to the press, the senator's office worked night and day on damage control. Used literally since the 1950s, specifically for limiting the effect of an accident on a ship, this term began to be used figuratively in the 1970s.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• damage-control
  adjective

Example Sentences

The next week, Gates’s nuclear power company TerraPower was engaging in its own form of reputational damage control.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 31, 2026

The Navy acknowledged there had been some issues, citing the vessel's leadership as saying "clog incidents are addressed promptly by trained damage control and engineering personnel, with minimal downtime".

From BBC • Mar. 18, 2026

The Navy acknowledged the reports of toilet problems in a statement last month, but cited ship leadership as saying that "clog incidents are addressed promptly by trained damage control and engineering personnel, with minimal downtime."

From Barron's • Mar. 17, 2026

A day after federal prosecutors announced that the catastrophic Palisades fire was caused by the rekindling of a smaller arson fire days earlier, Los Angeles city officials were in damage control mode.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2026

Going into damage control, CBS announced its regret that a few listeners who had heard only parts of the program “mistook fantasy for fact.”

From "Spooked!" by Gail Jarrow