Definition of "damp"
damp
adjective
comparative damper, superlative dampest
In a state between dry and wet; moderately wet; moist.
Quotations
Once the farms have been drained and the dead plants have been cut down and cleared, farmers then have to be alert for signs of black sigatoka, a devastating fungus which flourishes in damp conditions and can destroy banana farms.
25 January 2017, Leena Camadoo writing in The Guardian, Dominican banana producers at sharp end of climate change
(figuratively) Despondent; dispirited, downcast.
Quotations
Permitting the possession of alcoholic beverages, but not their sale.
Quotations
The Roadhouse was twenty-seve miles down the road from Niniltna, nine feet and three inches outside the Niniltna Native Association's tribal jurisdiction, and therefore not subject to the dry law currently in effect. Or was it damp? Kate thought it might have changed, yet again, at the last election, from dry to damp, or maybe it was from wet to damp.
2002, Dana Stabenow, A Fine and Bitter Snow, page 32
noun
countable and uncountable, plural damps
Quotations
Ere twice in murk and occidental damp / Moist Hesperus hath quench’d his sleepy lamp,
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, [Act II, scene i]
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.
1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 5, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015
(archaic) Fog; fogginess; vapor.
Quotations
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.
1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter XL, in The Woodlanders […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887
(archaic) Dejection or depression; something that spoils a positive emotion (such as enjoyment, satisfaction, expectation or courage) or a desired activity.
Quotations
[…] Mrs. Gummidge […] , I am sorry to relate, cast a damp upon the festive character of our departure, by immediately bursting into tears […]
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
[…] 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 […]
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
(mining, archaic or historical) A gaseous product, formed in coal mines, old wells, pits, etc.
Quotations
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.
1733, John Arbuthnot, chapter 1, in An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies, London: Jacob Tonson, page 19
verb
third-person singular simple present damps, present participle damping, simple past and past participle damped
(transitive, archaic) To put out, as fire; to weaken, restrain, or make dull.
Quotations
My Lords, that I am yet to be told that it behoves a Minister of this free country to set bounds to the philanthropy, to cramp the charity, to fetter the public spirit, to contract the enterprise, to damp the independent self-reliance of its people.
1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Book 1 Chapter 34”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857
(transitive) To suppress vibrations (mechanical) or oscillations (electrical) by converting energy to heat (or some other form of energy).