imprecate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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(intr) to swear, curse, or blaspheme
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(tr) to invoke or bring down (evil, a curse, etc)
to imprecate disaster on the ship
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(tr) to put a curse on
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of imprecate
First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin imprecātus, past participle of imprecārī “to invoke, pray to or for,” equivalent to im- “in” + prec- “pray” + -ātus past participle suffix; see origin at im- 1, pray, -ate 1
Explanation
To imprecate is to deliver a curse or verbally attack someone. You might imprecate a curse against a rival sports team, or even against a sibling. The verb imprecate is an old-fashioned way to say "curse," meaning either to wish harm or evil on someone, or simply to swear at them. If you're mad enough to say, "Curse you!" or "May your bed be full of fleas!" when your brother annoys you, you imprecate him. The Latin root is imprecationem, "an invoking of evil," from imprecari, "invoke or call down upon."
Vocabulary lists containing imprecate
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:
To be a thorough expert in dog-training a man must be able to imprecate freely and with considerable variety in at least three different languages.
From The Great Lone Land A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America by William Francis Butler
He ceased to imprecate only when, by repetition, his oaths became too inexpressive to be worth while.
From The Eagle's Heart by Hamlin Garland
Bowing my head to think—to pray—to imprecate, I lost all sense of time and place.
From Heralds of Empire Being the Story of One Ramsay Stanhope, Lieutenant to Pierre Radisson in the Northern Fur Trade by Agnes C. (Agnes Christina) Laut
How often did I imprecate curses on the cause of my being!
From Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Did not my father imprecate the wrath of Heaven upon me, if I held communion with her or hers?
From Trevethlan: (Vol 2 of 3) A Cornish Story. by William Davy Watson
He abstained from any violence to his wife and child, though he had imprecated many curses on the sons of Atreus: he neither hurt Teucer, nor even Ulysses himself.
From The Works of Horace by Horace
Should we grant that Moses here imprecated on himself the greatest evil, a sense of other people's sins, and not a sense of his own sins, was the occasion.
From Sermons on Various Important Subjects by Andrew Lee
He, with unabashed forehead, imprecated on his own head all evil here and hereafter if he was guilty.
From The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 2 by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay
He resisted, he prayed, he imprecated; and his father, too, who had no idea of proclaiming the affair in this way, did his utmost to prevail upon them to leave Miss Rety's name unmentioned.
From The Village Notary by J?zsef E?tv?s
His defiance of Earl Grey was pronounced nearly the same time that he imprecated vengeance on the Sydney democracy.
From The History of Tasmania , Volume II by John West
He throws effort into this record, whining, yammering, imprecating, imitating himself fabulously.
From New York Times ● Sep. 19, 2011
Thousands of pleading, imprecating letters from cloak-and-suit men the country over forced him to change his mind.
From Time Magazine Archive
While we were lying half-toggled into the sleeping-bags, writing our diaries, Hurley spent some time alternately imprecating the wind and invoking it for a calm next day.
From The Home of the Blizzard Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 by Sir Douglas Mawson
This I removed, mentally imprecating the rogue of a red squirrel.
From Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and Other Papers by John Burroughs
By imprecating unhallowed curses on the royal family.
From The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I. by Euripides
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.
