imprecate

American  

[im-pri-kayt] / ˈɪm prɪˌkeɪt /

verb (used with object)

imprecated, imprecating

1. to invoke or call down (evil or curses), as upon a person.

   Synonyms:

   anathematize, execrate, curse, denunciate

   Antonyms:

   bless

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imprecate British  

/ ˈɪmprɪˌkeɪt /

verb

1. (intr) to swear, curse, or blaspheme

2. (tr) to invoke or bring down (evil, a curse, etc)

   to imprecate disaster on the ship

3. (tr) to put a curse on

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Other Word Forms

• imprecator
  noun
• imprecatory
  adjective
• unimprecated
  adjective

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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

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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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

imprecate imprecated imprecating

To imprecate evil on any living being seems to them unchristian, barbarous, a relic of dark ages and dark superstitions.

From Town and Country Sermons by Charles Kingsley

So they implore and imprecate, turning themselves into the ugliest and fiercest creatures they can, to frighten the evil spirits that they believe have come against them on the outspread wings of the storm.

From My Friends the Savages Notes and Observations of a Perak settler (Malay Peninsula) by I. Stone Sanpietro

Further, he made the priests imprecate curses on any one who had dealings with the Persians or deserted the Greek cause.

From Plutarch's Lives, Volume II by Aubrey Stewart

Then rose a roar of indignation against the Englishmen who had dared, under the hypocritical pretence of devotion, to imprecate curses on England.

From The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 3 by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay

There was nothing for him to resent, nothing for him to imprecate but his own folly.

From The Alaskan by James Oliver Curwood

They scolded, railed and imprecated, Abased, defied and execrated; With malediction, ban and curse They simply went from bad to worse; Carramba!

From The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair Their Observations and Triumphs by C. M. (Charles McClellan) Stevens

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

I further remember that I was not the only Sixty-firster that imprecated in strong Saxon.

From Personal Recollections of the War of 1861 As Private, Sergeant and Lieutenant in the Sixty-First Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry by Charles Augustus Fuller

In the station, men wept and imprecated in their despair; twice they tried to go to the rescue of the beleaguered men, but could not reach them.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 15 by Various

That it was by no means consistent that now, when it was lawful and their duty, they should not exert their power against persons, on whom they had severally imprecated the vengeance of the gods.

From The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Titus Livius

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

His peroration consisted of a luxuriant use of imprecating adjectives which stamped him as a person of original thought.

From The Shellback's Progress In the Nineteenth Century by Walter Runciman

If he fell into a slumber, he beheld in his dreams the shadowy phantoms of the necromantic tower, or the injured Florinda, pale and dishevelled, imprecating the vengeance of Heaven upon his head.

From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 Volume 23, Number 5 by Lewis Gaylord Clark

Eager, feverish, fierce, recollecting and desiring and imprecating, her dry lips parted for a shriek that the dryer throat had at first no power to utter.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 96, October 1865 by Various

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