Adjacent Words

Damage definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DAM'AGE, n.[This word seems to be allied to the Greek, a fine or mulet.]
1. Any hurt, injury or harm to one's estate; any loss of property sustained; any hinderance to the increase of property; or any obstruction to the success of an enterprise. A man suffers damage by the destruction of his corn, by the burning of his house, by the detention of a ship which defeats a profitable voyage, or by the failure of a profitable undertaking. Damage then is any actual loss, or the prevention of profit. It is usually and properly applied to property, but sometimes to reputation and other things which are valuable. But in the latter case, injury is more correctly used.
2. The value of what is lost; the estimated equivalent for detriment or injury sustained; that which is given or adjudged to repair a loss. This is the legal signification of the word. It is the province of a jury to assess damages in trespass. In this sense, the word is generally used in the plural.
DAM'AGE, v.t. To hurt or harm; to injure; to impair; to lessen the soundness, goodness or value of. Rain may damage corn or hay; a storm may damage a ship; a house is often damaged by fire, when it is not destroyed; heavy rains damage roads.
DAM'AGE, v.i. To receive harm; to be injured or impaired in soundness, or value; as, green corn will damage in a mow or stack.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the occurrence of a change for the worse [syn: damage, harm, impairment]
2: loss of military equipment [syn: damage, equipment casualty]
3: the act of damaging something or someone [syn: damage, harm, hurt, scathe]
4: the amount of money needed to purchase something; "the price of gasoline"; "he got his new car on excellent terms"; "how much is the damage?" [syn: price, terms, damage]
5: any harm or injury resulting from a violation of a legal right [syn: wrong, legal injury, damage] v
1: inflict damage upon; "The snow damaged the roof"; "She damaged the car when she hit the tree"
2: suffer or be susceptible to damage; "These fine china cups damage easily"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from dan damage, from Latin damnum Date: 14th century 1. loss or harm resulting from injury to person, property, or reputation 2. plural compensation in money imposed by law for loss or injury 3. expense, cost <“What's the damage?” he asked the waiter> II. transitive verb (damaged; damaging) Date: 14th century to cause damage to <don't damage the furniture> <returning soldiers damaged by war> Synonyms: see injure • damageability noun • damager noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 harm or injury impairing the value or usefulness of something, or the health or normal function of a person. 2 (in pl.) Law a sum of money claimed or awarded in compensation for a loss or an injury. 3 the loss of what is desirable. 4 (prec. by the) sl. cost (what's the damage?). --v.tr. 1 inflict damage on. 2 (esp. as damaging adj.) detract from the reputation of (a most damaging admission). Derivatives: damagingly adv. Etymology: ME f. OF damage (n.), damagier (v.), f. dam(me) loss f. L damnum loss, damage

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Damage Dam"age, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Damages; p. pr. & vb. n. Damaging.] [Cf. OF. damagier, domagier. See Damage, n.] To ocassion damage to the soudness, goodness, or value of; to hurt; to injure; to impair. He . . . came up to the English admiral and gave him a broadside, with which he killed many of his men and damaged the ship. --Clarendon.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Damage Dam"age, n. [OF. damage, domage, F. dommage, fr. assumed LL. damnaticum, from L. damnum damage. See Damn.] 1. Injury or harm to person, property, or reputation; an inflicted loss of value; detriment; hurt; mischief. He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet and drinketh damage. --Prov. xxvi. 6. Great errors and absurdities many commit for want of a friend to tell them of them, to the great damage both of their fame and fortune. --Bacon. 2. pl. (Law) The estimated reparation in money for detriment or injury sustained; a compensation, recompense, or satisfaction to one party, for a wrong or injury actually done to him by another. Note: In common-law action, the jury are the proper judges of damages. Consequential damage. See under Consequential. Exemplary damages (Law), damages imposed by way of example to others. Nominal damages (Law), those given for a violation of a right where no actual loss has accrued. Vindictive damages, those given specially for the punishment of the wrongdoer. Syn: Mischief; injury; harm; hurt; detriment; evil; ill. See Mischief.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Damage Dam"age, v. i. To receive damage or harm; to be injured or impaired in soudness or value; as. some colors in ?oth damage in sunlight.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(damages, damaging, damaged) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. To damage an object means to break it, spoil it physically, or stop it from working properly. He maliciously damaged a car with a baseball bat... The sun can damage your skin. VERB: V n, V n 2. To damage something means to cause it to become less good, pleasant, or successful. Jackson doesn't want to damage his reputation as a political personality... = harm VERB: V n • damaging Is the recycling process in itself damaging to the environment? = harmful ADJ 3. Damage is physical harm that is caused to an object. The blast caused extensive damage to the house... Many professional boxers end their careers with brain damage. N-UNCOUNT: oft N to n 4. Damage consists of the unpleasant effects that something has on a person, situation, or type of activity. Incidents of this type cause irreparable damage to relations with the community... N-UNCOUNT: oft N to n 5. If a court of law awards damages to someone, it orders money to be paid to them by a person who has damaged their reputation or property, or who has injured them. He was vindicated in court and damages were awarded. N-PLURAL

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

dam'-aj (chabhala'): This word expresses any inflicted loss of value or permanent injury to persons or things. "Why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings?" (Ezr 4:22). In Pr 26:6 "damage" means "wrong," "injury" (Hebrew chamac). The translation of Es 7:4 is doubtful: "Although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's damage" (the Revised Version, margin "For our affliction is not to be compared with the king's damage" the King James Version "could not countervail the king's damage") but Hebrew nezeq (Es 7:4) and Aramaic naziq (Da 6:2) have the meaning of "molestation" or "annoyance" (see Ges.6 Buhl Dict. (15th edition) 489, 806, 908). We therefore ought to read `for that oppression would not have been worthy of the molestation of the king' (Es 7:4) and `that the king should have no molestation' (Da 6:2). The Greek zemia, "loss" and zemioo, "to cause loss"; the Revised Version (British and American) therefore translates Ac 27:10 "will be with injury and much loss" (the King James Version "damage"), and 2Co 7:9 "that ye might suffer loss by us in nothing" (the King James Version "damage").

A. L. Breslich

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Injury, harm, hurt, detriment, mischief, loss. II. v. a. Injure, impair, hurt, harm, mar.

Moby Thesaurus

abomination, abuse, afflict, aggravate, aggrieve, amount, atrocity, bad, bane, bankruptcy, befoul, befoulment, bereavement, bewitch, bill, blemish, blight, breakage, breakdown, charge, check, collapse, compensation, condemn, corrupt, corruption, cost, crack-up, crippling, crucify, crying evil, curse, damages, dead loss, debit, deface, defile, defilement, deleteriousness, demolish, denial, denudation, deprave, deprivation, despoil, despoilment, despoliation, destroy, destruction, deteriorate, deterioration, detriment, devastation, dilapidate, dilapidation, disablement, disadvantage, disfigure, dispossession, disrepair, disserve, distress, divestment, do a mischief, do evil, do ill, do wrong, do wrong by, doom, drawback, embitter, encroachment, endamage, envenom, evil, exacerbate, expenditure, expense, figure, forfeit, forfeiture, get into trouble, grievance, handicap, harass, harm, havoc, hex, hobbling, hurt, hurting, ill, ill-treat, impair, impairment, incapacitation, indemnity, infect, infection, infringement, injure, injury, inroad, invoice, irritate, jinx, liability, loser, losing, losing streak, loss, loss of ground, maiming, make worse, maltreat, mar, mayhem, menace, mischief, mistreat, misuse, molest, mutilate, mutilation, outrage, perdition, persecute, play havoc with, play hob with, poison, pollute, pollution, prejudice, price, price tag, privation, put back, rate, raze, reparation, robbery, ruin, ruination, ruining, ruinousness, sabotage, sacrifice, savage, scathe, score, sickening, spoil, spoiling, spoliation, step backward, stripping, tab, taint, taking away, tarnish, the worst, threaten, torment, torture, total loss, toxin, venom, vexation, violate, vitiate, weaken, weakening, woe, worsen, wound, wreak havoc on, wreck, wrecking, wrong