imprecate

American  

[im-pri-keyt] / 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

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."

Example Sentences

But now, there is scarcely a tongue in all New England that does not imprecate curses on his name.

From True Stories of History and Biography by Hawthorne, Nathaniel

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 Kingsley, Charles

Daughter, to thy father go back with good cheer; nor imprecate swift death upon us, nor let choler shake thy bosom.

From The Danish History, Books I-IX by Saxo, Grammaticus

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 Sanpietro, I. Stone

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 Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)