Sentence:  To sailors, oaths are household words; they will swear in the trance of the calm, and in the teeth of the tempest; they will <WSD>imprecate</WSD> curses from the topsail-yard-arms, when most they teeter over to a seething sea; [...] 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To invoke evil upon; to curse; to swear at.