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:
O Man: Pass not all heedless by, nor imprecate This aged relic of the past because It lies across thy path!
From The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 6 by Various
O thou guileful betrayer! there is a just God, whom thou invokest: yet the thunderbolt descends not; and thou livest to imprecate and deceive!
From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 6 by Richardson, Samuel
There was nothing for him to resent, nothing for him to imprecate but his own folly.
From The Alaskan by Curwood, James Oliver
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 Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
"I know his features," he exclaimed with indignation: "I assert his innocence; and I imprecate the same, a juster fate, against the authors of his death."
From History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5 by Milman, Henry Hart
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 Lee, Andrew
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 Stevens, C. M. (Charles McClellan)
My father, in the first agitations of his mind, on discovering your wicked, your shameful elopement, imprecated on his knees a fearful curse upon you.
From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 3 by Richardson, Samuel
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 E?tv?s, J?zsef
"Sapristi!" imprecated Maryan, and immediately he laughed again.
From The Argonauts by Curtin, Jeremiah
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
Her father, partaking of her grief, and imprecating the king of Egypt, did not doubt but this accident foretold some fatal event.
From Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One Volume by
The most painful privilege of the colyumist's job is the number of people who drop in to see him, usually when he is imprecating his way toward the hour of going to press.
From Pipefuls by Morley, Christopher
Space was wanted, and moreover its bony, imprecating arms, long since bereft of beckoning fingers, menaced our safety.
From My Tropic Isle by Banfield, E. J. (Edmund James)
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.
