damnify

American  

[dam-nuh-fahy] / ˈdæm nəˌfaɪ /

verb (used with object)

Law.

damnified, damnifying

1. to cause loss or damage to.

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damnify British  

/ ˈdæmnɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. law to cause loss or damage to (a person); injure

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Other Word Forms

• damnification
  noun
• undamnified
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of damnify

1505–15; < Middle French damnifier, Old French < Late Latin damnificāre, derivative of Latin damnific ( us ) harmful, equivalent to damn ( um ) damage + -ificus ( see -i-, -fic); see -ify

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

damnify damnified damnifying

"Alexander commanded his soldiers neither to damnify Pindarus, the poet, nor any of his family."

From Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters by John Earle

In Haverhill, in 1708, young women were permitted to build pews, provided they did not "damnify the Stairway."

From Sabbath in Puritan New England by Alice Morse Earle

Secondly, a man may damnify another by preventing him from obtaining what he was on the way to obtain.

From Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province by Saint Aquinas Thomas

But seeing it was our happs to damnify each other unwillingly, let us be content with our harms, and lay the fault where it was, and so become friends.

From Fair Em by Shakespeare (spurious and doubtful works)

He earnestly besought that those opportunities might not be "damnified" by Calef's book.

From Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather A Reply by Charles Wentworth Upham

For can it be imagined but that, since so much confusion was brought into the church, some of the truly godly themselves would be much damnified thereby?

From Works of John Bunyan — Volume 03 by John Bunyan

The most gracious prince is bounde to doe his indeuor, that the parties damnified may haue restitution of their goods made vnto them, or at least complete iustice and iudgement without delay.

From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 05 Central and Southern Europe by Richard Hakluyt

Also all and singular damnified persons, besides other proofes, were compelled to verifie their losses by their formall othes, taken vpon the holy Bible.

From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 05 Central and Southern Europe by Richard Hakluyt

The historian of the civil wars declares that Piso spoke up for Antony, saying that he should not be damnified by loose statements, but should be openly accused.

From The Life of Cicero Volume II. by Anthony Trollope

Also the British High Commissioner has issued a damnifying proclamation against Jameson and all British abettors of his game.

From Following the Equator, Part 7 by Mark Twain

The thirty-first question was so framed that, if truthfully replied to, it was certain to elicit facts which would form the groundwork of damnifying strictures on the principal abuses of the time.

From The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion by John Charles Dent