damp
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: dămp
ipa: /dæmp/
rhymes: -æmp
Forms: form: damps
Etymology: From Middle English dampen (“to stifle; suffocate”). Akin to Low German damp, Dutch damp, and German Dampf (“vapor, steam, fog”), Icelandic dampi, Swedish damm (“dust”), and to German dampf imperative of dimpfen (“to smoke”). Also Middle English dampen (“to extinguish, choke, suffocate”). Ultimately all descend from Proto-Germanic *dampaz.
Senses: examples: text: Ere twice in murk and occidental damp / Moist Hesperus hath quench’d his sleepy lamp,
ref: c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: What means this chilling damp that clings around me! / Why do I tremble thus!
ref: 1764, Elizabeth Griffith, Amana, London: W. Johnston, act V, page 49:
text: Unceasing, soaking rain was falling; the very lamps seemed obscured by the damp upon the glass, and their light reached but to a little distance from the posts.
ref: 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 10, in Mary Barton:
text: But what was worse, damp now began to make its way into every house—damp, which is the most insidious of all enemies, for while the sun can be shut out by blinds, and the frost roasted by a hot fire, damp steals in while we sleep; damp is silent, imperceptible, ubiquitous.
ref: 1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 5, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:
text: We sometimes kept our Wellingtons on the whole day, leaving trails of mud and damp through the rooms.
ref: 2005, Kazuo Ishiguro, chapter 10, in Never Let Me Go, London: Faber, published 2010, page 115:
glosses: Moisture; humidity; dampness.
examples: text: Night […] with black air / Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: Her chilling finger on my head,
With coldest touch congealed my soul—
Cold as the finger of the dead,
Or damps which round a tombstone roll—
ref: 1810, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Elizabeth Shelley, “Warrior”, in Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire, London: John Lane, published 1898, page 57:
text: Summer was ending: in the daytime singing insects hung in every sunbeam; vegetation was heavy nightly with globes of dew; and after showers creeping damps and twilight chills came up from the hollows.
ref: 1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter XL, in The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
glosses: Fog; fogginess; vapor.
examples: text: Ev’n now, while thus I stand blest in thy Presence, / A secret Damp of Grief comes o’er my Thoughts,
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 35:
text: 1728, George Carleton (attributed to Daniel Defoe), The Memoirs of an English Officer, London: E. Symon, p. 72,
But though the War was proclaim’d, and Preparations accordingly made for it, the Expectations from all receiv’d a sudden Damp, by the as sudden Death of King William.
text: It is in this ſpirit that ſome have looked upon thoſe accidents, that caſt an occaſional damp upon trade.
ref: 1769, [Edmund Burke], Observations on a Late State of the Nation, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 33:
text: No sentiment of shame gave a damp to her triumph.
ref: 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
text: […] Mrs. Gummidge […], I am sorry to relate, cast a damp upon the festive character of our departure, by immediately bursting into tears […]
ref: 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “I Become Neglected, and am Provided for”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:
text: 1866, James David Forbes, letter to A. Wills dated 2 January, 1866, in Life and Letters of James David Forbes, London: Macmaillan, 1873, p. 429,
[…] I was concerned to hear from your brother that Mrs. Wills’ health had prevented her accompanying you to Sixt as usual. It must have thrown a damp over your autumn excursion […]
glosses: Dejection or depression; something that spoils a positive emotion (such as enjoyment, satisfaction, expectation or courage) or a desired activity.
examples: text: There are sulphurous Vapours which infect the Vegetables, and render the Grass unwholsom to the Cattle that feed upon it: Miners are often hurt by these Steams. Observations made in some of the Mines in Derbyshire, describe four sorts of those Damps.
ref: 1733, John Arbuthnot, chapter 1, in An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies, London: Jacob Tonson, page 19:
topics: business
mining
glosses: A gaseous product, formed in coal mines, old wells, pits, etc.
Derived terms: afterdamp
blackdamp
chokedamp
choke damp
damp course
dampless
dampproof
damp proofing
damp sheet
death-damp
firedamp
flashdamp
rising damp
stinkdamp
whitedamp