different between damp vs dew

English

Etymology

From Middle English damp (noun) and 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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: d?mp, IPA^(key): /dæmp/
• Rhymes: -æmp

Adjective

damp (comparative damper, superlative dampest)

1. In a state between dry and wet; moderately wet; moist.
   • 25 January 2017, Leena Camadoo writing in The Guardian, Dominican banana producers at sharp end of climate change

     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.

   • 1697, John Dryden translating Virgil, Aeneid Book VI

     She said no more. The trembling Trojans hear,

     O'erspread with a damp sweat and holy fear.

   The lawn was still damp so we decided not to sit down.

   The paint is still damp, so please don't touch it.

2. (figuratively) Despondent; dispirited, downcast.
   • 27 July 2016, Jane O’Faherty in The Irish Independent, Monarchs and prison officers win big on second race day

     Though Travis's 'Why does it always Rain on Me' boomed around the stands, there were few damp spirits in Galway on day two of the races.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, ll. 522-3:

     All these and more came flocking; but with looks / Down cast and damp.

3. Permitting the possession of alcoholic beverages, but not their sale.

Usage notes

Damp commonly is used for disagreeable conditions and moist often is used for agreeable conditions:

Synonyms

• (in a state between dry and wet): moist, thoan/thone (dialect); see also Thesaurus:wet
• (despondent): glum, melancholy, sorrowful; see also Thesaurus:sad

Derived terms

• dampen
• dampness

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Word formation verb -en noun -ness

Noun

damp (countable and uncountable, plural damps)

1. Moisture; humidity; dampness.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, Act II, Scene 1,^[1]

     Ere twice in murk and occidental damp

     Moist Hesperus hath quench’d his sleepy lamp,

   • 1764, Elizabeth Griffith, Amana, London: W. Johnston, Act V, p. 49,^[2]

     What means this chilling damp that clings around me!

     Why do I tremble thus!

   • 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton, Chapter 10,^[3]

     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.

   • 1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, Penguin, 1942, Chapter 5, p. 160,^[4]

     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.

   • 2005, Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, London: Faber, 2010, Chapter 10, p. 115,^[5]

     We sometimes kept our Wellingtons on the whole day, leaving trails of mud and damp through the rooms.

2. (archaic) Fog; fogginess; vapor.
   • 1810, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Elizabeth Shelley, “Warrior” in Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire, London: John Lane, 1898, p. 57,^[6]

     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—

   • 1887, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders, Chapter 40,^[7]

     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.

3. (archaic) Dejection or depression; something that spoils a positive emotion (such as enjoyment, satisfaction, expectation or courage) or a desired activity.
   • 1713, Joseph Addison, Cato, A Tragedy, London: Jacob Tonson, Act III, Scene 1, p. 35,^[8]

     Ev’n now, while thus I stand blest in thy Presence,

     A secret Damp of Grief comes o’er my Thoughts,

   • 1728, George Carleton (attributed to Daniel Defoe), The Memoirs of an English Officer, London: E. Symon, p. 72,^[9]

     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.

   • 1769, Edmund Burke, Observations on a Late State of the Nation, London: J. Dodsley, p. 33,^[10]

     It is in this spirit that some have looked upon those accidents, that cast an occasional damp upon trade.

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50,^[11]

     No sentiment of shame gave a damp to her triumph.

   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 10,^[12]

     […] Mrs. Gummidge […] , I am sorry to relate, cast a damp upon the festive character of our departure, by immediately bursting into tears […]

   • 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,^[13]

     […] 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 […]

4. (archaic or historical, mining) A gaseous product, formed in coal mines, old wells, pits, etc.
   • 1733, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies, London: Jacob Tonson, Chapter 1, p. 19,^[14]

     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.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

damp (third-person singular simple present damps, present participle damping, simple past and past participle damped)

1. (transitive, archaic) To dampen; to make moderately wet

   Synonym: moisten

2. (transitive, archaic) To put out, as fire; to weaken, restrain, or make dull.
   • 1887, Sir John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life

     How many a day has been damped and darkened by an angry word!

   • 1857, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit Book 1 Chapter 34

     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.

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second

     The failure of his enterprise damped the spirit of the soldiers.

   • 1744, Mark Akenside, The Pleasures of the Imagination

     I do not mean to wake the gloomy form Of superstition dress'd in wisdom's garb, To damp your tender hopes

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Essays, civil and moral

     Usury dulls and damps all industries, improvements, and new inventions, wherein money would be stirring if it were not for this slug

3. (transitive) To suppress vibrations (mechanical) or oscillations (electrical) by converting energy to heat (or some other form of energy).

Translations

Anagrams

• M.D. Pa., MPDA

Danish

Etymology

From German Low German Damp (compare dampen, Dampen n)

Noun

damp c (singular definite dampen, plural indefinite dampe)

1. steam

Inflection

Verb

damp

1. imperative of dampe

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?mp/
• Hyphenation: damp
• Rhymes: -?mp

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch damp.

Noun

damp m (plural dampen, diminutive dampje n)

1. vapour (UK), vapor (US)

Derived terms

• dampbad
• dampkogel
• dampkring
• dampvormig
• gifdamp
• waterdamp
• zuurdamp
• zwaveldamp

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

damp

1. first-person singular present indicative of dampen
2. imperative of dampen

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From German Low German Damp (compare dampen, Dampen n)

Noun

damp m (definite singular dampen, indefinite plural damper, definite plural dampene)

1. steam
2. vapour (UK), vapor (US)

Derived terms

Related terms

• dampe

Etymology 2

Verb

damp

1. imperative of dampe

References

• “damp” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From German Low German Damp (compare dampen, Dampen n)

Noun

damp m (definite singular dampen, indefinite plural dampar, definite plural dampane)

1. steam
2. vapour (UK), vapor (US)

Derived terms

Related terms

• dampe

References

• “damp” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Verb

damp

1. past tense of dimpa.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dju?/
• IPA^(key): /d?u?/ (among those with yod-coalescence in stressed syllables)
• (US) IPA^(key): /du/ (among those with yod-dropping)

• Homophones: do, doo (with yod-dropping), Jew (with yod-coalescence), due

Etymology 1

From Middle English dew, from Old English d?aw (“dew”), from Proto-Germanic *dawwaz, *daww? (“dew, moisture”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?ewh?- (“smoke, haze”). Cognate with German Tau, Dutch dauw and Afrikaans dou.

Noun

dew (countable and uncountable, plural dews)

1. (uncountable) Any moisture from the atmosphere condensed by cool bodies upon their surfaces.
2. (uncountable) Moisture in the air that settles on plants, etc in the morning, resulting in drops.

   Synonym: (obsolete) rore
3. (countable, but see usage notes) An instance of such moisture settling on plants, etc.

4. (figuratively) Anything that falls lightly and in a refreshing manner.
5. (figuratively) An emblem of morning, or fresh vigour.
   • the dew of his youth

Usage notes

• Although the countable sense is still used, the plural form is now archaic or poetic only.

Derived terms

• dew point
• honeydew

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English dewe, dewyn, from Old English *d?awian, from the same source as above.

Verb

dew (third-person singular simple present dews, present participle dewing, simple past and past participle dewed)

1. To wet with, or as if with, dew; to moisten.
   • 1887, Andrew B. Saxton, "Sunken Graves", in The Century

     The grasses grew / A little ranker since they dewed them so.

Related terms

• bedew

Translations

Anagrams

• Wed, Wed., we'd, wed

Catalan

Etymology

From adéu.

Interjection

dew

1. (Internet slang) bye

Cornish

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *d?w, from Proto-Celtic *dwau, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh?.

Numeral

dew m (feminine form diw)

1. two

Mutation

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English d?aw, from Proto-Germanic *dawwaz, *daww?.

Alternative forms

• deu, dewe, deaw, deau, dew?, dæw, deew, dieu?

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?u?/
• Rhymes: -?u?

Noun

dew (plural dewes)

1. dew; moisture present on plants.
2. (figuratively) A rejuvenating substance.
3. (rare) Sodden or water-soaked terrain.

Derived terms

• dewy
• dewyn
• dewynge

Descendants

• English: dew
• Scots: dew, deow, dyow
• Yola: dhew

References

• “deu, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-12.

Etymology 2

Adjective

dew

1. Alternative form of dewe (“due”)

Noun

dew

1. Alternative form of dewe (“due”)

Welsh

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /de?u?/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /d?u?/

Adjective

dew

1. Soft mutation of tew.

Mutation

Zazaki

Etymology

Compare Persian ??? (deh).

Noun

dew ?

1. village

Declension

See also

• dew?c