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damp

Pronunciation: /ˈdæmp/

The English word “damp” has 10 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. In a state between dry and wet; moderately wet; moist.
  2. Despondent; dispirited, downcast.
  3. Permitting the possession of alcoholic beverages, but not their sale.

noun

  1. Moisture; humidity; dampness.
  2. Fog; fogginess; vapor.
  3. Dejection or depression; something that spoils a positive emotion (such as enjoyment, satisfaction, expectation or courage) or a desired activity.
  4. A gaseous product, formed in coal mines, old wells, pits, etc.

verb

  1. To suppress vibrations (mechanical) or oscillations (electrical) by converting energy to heat (or some other form of energy).
  2. To dampen; to make moderately wet.
  3. To put out, as fire; to weaken, restrain, or make dull.

Etymology

From Middle English dampen (“to stifle; suffocate”), from Old English damp, from Proto-Germanic *dampaz. 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”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.