different between stale vs damp

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ste?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English stale, of uncertain etymology, but probably originally from Proto-Germanic *st?n? (“to stand”): compare West Flemish stel in the same sense for ‘beer’ and ‘urine’.

Adjective

stale (comparative staler, superlative stalest)

1. (alcoholic beverages, obsolete) Clear, free of dregs and lees; old and strong.
   • c. 1300, K. Horn (Laud), 383:

     Bi forn þe king abenche Red win to schenche And after mete stale Boþe win and ale.

   • c. 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Thopas, 52:

     Notemuge to putte in ale, Whether it be moyste or stale

2. No longer fresh, in reference to food, urine, straw, wounds, etc.
   • 1530, John Palsgrave, L'éclaircissement de la langue française, 325 2:

     Stale as breed or drinke is, rassis. Stale as meate is that begynneth to savoure, viel.

   • c. 1550, Wyll of Deuill, C 2 b:

     New freshe blood to ouersprinkle their stale mete that it may seme...newly kylled.

   • 2012, Stephen Woodworth, In Golden Blood: Number 3 in series

     To her surprise, Abe did not come to collect her for the usual morning inhabitation session with Azure. She did not see him until almost noon, when he personally delivered lunch to her tent. Another stale roll and cup of water sat on the tray he carried. Abe hung his head, as abashed as Honorato had been. “This is all I could sneak in for now. I'll try to get more later.”

3. No longer fresh, new, or interesting, in reference to ideas and immaterial things; cliche, hackneyed, dated.
   • 1562, in J. Heywood, Proverbs & Epigrams (1867), 95:

     Better is...be it new or stale, A harmelesse lie, than a harmefull true tale.

   • 1579, in G. Harvey, letter book, 60:

     Doist thou smyle to reade this stale and beggarlye stuffe.

   • 1604, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, I ii 133:

     How wary, stale, flat, and vnprofitable Seeme to me all the vses of this world?

   • 1822 March, Charles Lamb, London Magazine, 284 1:

     A two-days-old newspaper. You resent the stale thing as an affront.

   • 2002, Mark Lawson, And They Rose Up: Days of Retribution

     Rick would comment on the fact that he'd never had such bad coffee, not even the mud at his precinct. Mark would tell him to quit with the stale joke, already

4. No longer nubile or suitable for marriage, in reference to people; past one's prime.
   • c. 1580, J. Jeffere, Bugbears, I ii 108:

     Rosimunda...hathe an vncle a stale batcheler.

   • 1742, T. Short, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 42 226:

     In barren Women, and stale Maids, Tapping should be very cautiously undertaken.

5. (agriculture, obsolete) Fallow, in reference to land.
   • 1764, Museum Rusticum, II 306:

     Lime would do very little or no good on stale ploughed lands.

6. (law) Unreasonably long in coming, in reference to claims and actions.

   a stale affidavit

   a stale demand

   • 1769, William Blackstone, Common Laws of England, IV xv 211:

     The jury will rarely give credit to a stale complaint.

7. Taking a long time to change
   • 2014, David L. Hough, Street Strategies for Motorcyclists

     In most states, you can be ticketed for failing to clear the intersection, even if you are hemmed in by traffic. One good clue to a stale green light is the pedestrian signal.

8. Worn out, particularly due to age or over-exertion, in reference to athletes and animals in competition.
   • 1856, "Stonehenge", Manual of British Rural Sports, II i vi §7 335:

     By this means the [horse's] legs are not made more stale than necessary.

   • 1885 May 28, Truth, 853 2:

     Dame Agnes will probably be stale after her exertions in the Derby.

9. (finance) Out of date, unpaid for an unreasonable amount of time, particularly in reference to checks.
   • 1901, Business Terms & Phrases second edition, 199:

     Stale cheque,...a cheque which has remained unpaid for some considerable time.

10. (computing) Of data: out of date; not synchronized with the newest copy.

    The bug was found to be caused by stale data in the cache.

Usage notes

In the third sense regarding food, usually (but not always) pejorative and synonymous with gone bad and turned. In reference to mead, wine, and bread, it can describe an acceptable or desired state (see: crouton). In modern English, however, "stale beer" has been light struck, flat, or oxidized and is to be avoided.

Synonyms

• see also Thesaurus:hackneyed

Antonyms

• fresh

Derived terms

Related terms

• go stale
• stale drunk

Translations

Noun

stale (plural stales)

1. (colloquial) Something stale; a loaf of bread or the like that is no longer fresh.
   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, II iii 39:

     I went to Riggs's batty-cake shop, and asked 'em for a penneth of the cheapest and nicest stales, that were all but blue-mouldy, but not quite.

   • 1937, George Orwell, Road to Wigan Pier, I i 15:

     Frayed-looking sweet-cakes...bought as ‘stales’ from the baker.

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (of alcohol, obsolete, transitive) To make stale; to age in order to clear and strengthen (a drink, especially beer).
   • c. 1440, Promp. Parv., 472 1:

     Stalyn, or make stale drynke, defeco.

   • 1826, Art of Brewing, second edition, 106:

     A stock of old porter should be kept, sufficient for staling the consumption of twelve months.

2. (transitive) To make stale; to cause to go out of fashion or currency; to diminish the novelty or interest of, particularly by excessive exposure or consumption.
   • 1601, Ben Jonson, Fountaine of Self-love, 36:

     Ile goe tell all the Argument of his Play aforehand, and so stale his Inuention to the Auditory before it come foorth.

   • 1601, Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humor, I iv:

     Not content To stale himselfe in all societies, He makes my house as common as a Mart.

   • c. 1616, William Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra, II ii 241:

     Age cannot wither her, nor custome stale Her infinite variety.

   • 1863, W. W. Story, Roba di Roma, I i 7:

     Pictures and statues have been staled by copy and description.

3. (intransitive) To become stale; to grow odious from excessive exposure or consumption.
   • 1717, E. Erskine, Serm. in Wks., 50 1:

     They have got so much of Christ as to be staled of his company.

   • 1893, "Q", Delectable Duchy, 325:

     Philanthropy was beginning to stale.

   • 1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger

     Vi's penchant for puns had struck him as cute when he first met her, but it had staled somewhat over the years.

4. (alcoholic beverages, intransitive) To become stale; to grow unpleasant from age.
   • 1742, W. Ellis, London & Country Brewer, 4th ed., I 64:

     The Drink from that Time flattens and stales.

Derived terms

• antistaling

Etymology 2

From Middle English stale, from Old English stalu, from Proto-Germanic *stal-. The development was paralleled by the ablaut which became English steal, from Middle English stele, from Old English stela, from Proto-Germanic *stel-. The latter also produced Ancient Greek ??????? (steleós, “handle”) and Latin st?la, which became English stele and stela.

Noun

stale (plural stales)

1. A long, thin handle (of rakes, axes, etc.)
   • 12th century, Sidonius Glosses in Anecd. Oxon., I v 59 22:

     Ansae et ansulae alicuius rei sunt illa eminentia in illa re per quam capi possit .i. ‘stale’.

   • c. 1393, Langland, Piers Plowman (Vesp. MS), C xxii 279:

     And lerede men a ladel bygge with a long stale.

   • 1742, W. Ellis, London & Country Brewer 4th ed., I 61:

     In Case your Cask is a Butt,...have ready boiling...Water, which put in, and, with a long Stale and a little Birch fastened to its End, scrub the Bottom.

   • 1890 February 4, Manchester Guardian, 12 3:

     You came to me with the axe head in one hand and the stale in the other.

2. (dialectal) The posts and rungs composing a ladder.
   • 13th century, Ancrene Riwle, 160:

     Scheome. and pine...beoð þe two leddre stalen. þet beoð upriht to þe heouene. and bitweonen þeos stalen beoð þe tindes i-vestned of alle gode þeauwes. bi hwuche me climbeð to þe blisse of heouene.

   • c. 1315, Shoreham Poems, I 49:

     Þis ilke laddre is charite, Þe stales gode þeawis.

   • 1887, W. D. Parish & al., Kentish Dial.

     Stales, the staves, or risings of a ladder, or the staves of a rack in a stable.

3. (botany, obsolete) The stem of a plant.
4. The shaft of an arrow, spear, etc.
   • 1553, J. Brende translating Q. Curtius Rufus, Hist., IX

     The Surgians cut of the stale of that shaft in suche wise, that they moued not the heade that was wythin the fleshe.

   • c. 1611, G. Chapman translating Homer, Iliad, IV 173:

     ...seeing th'arrowes stale without.

Alternative forms

• stele (botanical, preferred)
• steal, stele (dialectal)
• steel, stail (archaic)

Synonyms

• handle (grip of tools, generally)
• haft (grip of tools, generally, and especially of axes)
• helve (grip of tools, generally)
• shaft (body of arrows, spears, etc.)
• snath, the shaft of a scythe
• stem (plants)

Translations

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To make a ladder by joining rungs ("stales") between the posts.
   • 1492 in Archæol. Cant., XVI 304:

     For stalyng of the ladders of the Churche xx d.

Etymology 3

From Middle English stale, from Old French estal (“place, something placed”) (compare French étal), from Frankish stal, from Proto-Germanic *stallaz, earlier *staþlaz. Related to stall and stand.

Noun

stale (plural stales)

1. (military, obsolete) A fixed position, particularly a soldier's in a battle-line.
   • c. 1450, in C. L. Kingsford, Chrons. London (1905), 123:

     And at pavelen...þe Erle of Dorzet helde is stale, and þer he toke prisoners.

   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, V xi 179

     And syr Florence with his C knyghtes alwey kepte the stale and foughte manly.

2. (chess, uncommon) A stalemate; a stalemated game.
   • 1423, Kingis Quair, CLXIX:

     ‘Off mate?’ quod sche...‘thou has fundin stale This mony day’.

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Essays, 65

     They stand at a stay; Like a Stale at Chesse, where it is no Mate, but yet the Game cannot stirre.

3. (military, obsolete) An ambush.
   • c. 1425, Wyntoun Cron., IX viii 811:

     And he in stale howyd al stil.

   • 1513, G. Douglas translating Virgil, Æneid, XI x 96:

     It is a stelling place and sovir harbry, Quhar ost in staill or embuschment may ly.

   • 1577, R. Holinshed, Chron., II 1479 2:

     The erle of Essex...with .ii. C. speares was layde in a stale, if the Frenchmen had come neerer.

4. (obsolete) A band of armed men or hunters.
   • c. 1350, in N. H. Nicolas, Hist. Royal Navy (1847), II 491:

     [Every time that it shall be ordered..that armed men..shall land on the enemy's coast to seek victuals... then there shall be ordained a sufficient ‘stale’ of armed men and archers who shall wait together on the land until the ‘forreiours’ return to them].

   • 14th century, Morte Arthur, 1355:

     [Gawayne] sterttes owtte to hys stede, and with his stale wendes.

   • c. 1540, J. Bellenden translating H. Boece, Hyst. & Cron. Scotl., XII xvi 184:

     The staill past throw the wod with sic noyis...yat all the bestis wer rasit fra thair dennys.

   • 1577, R. Holinshed, Hist. Scotl., 471 2 in Chron., I:

     The Lard of Drunlanrig lying al thys while in ambush...forbare to breake out to gyue anye charge vppon his enimies, doubting least the Earle of Lennox hadde kept a stale behynde.

5. (Scotland, military, obsolete) The main force of an army.
   • 1532 in 1836, State Papers Henry VIII, IV 626:

     Neveryeles I knaw asweill by Englisemen as Scottishmen that their stale was no les then thre thowsand men.

Derived terms

Adjective

stale (not comparable)

1. (chess, obsolete) At a standstill; stalemated.
   • c. 1470, Ashmolean MS 344, 21:

     Then drawith he & is stale.

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (chess, uncommon, transitive) To stalemate.
   • c. 1470, Ashmole MS 344, 7:

     He shall stale þe black kyng in the pointe þer the crosse standith.

   • 1903, H. J. R. Murray, Brit. Chess. Mag., 283:

     In China, however, a player who stales his opponent's King, wins the game.

2. (chess, obsolete, intransitive) To be stalemated.
   • 1597, A. Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 202:

     For vnder cuire I got sik check, that I micht neither muife nor neck, bot ather stale or mait.

Etymology 4

From Middle English stalen (“to urinate”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps Old French estaler, related to Middle High German stallen (“to piss”).

Noun

stale (uncountable)

1. (livestock, obsolete) Urine, especially used of horses and cattle.
   • 14th c., Stockh. Medical MS. in Anglia XVIII.299:

     In werd ben men & women […] þat þer stale mown not holde.

   • 1535, Miles Coverdale translating the Bible, "Isaiah", XXXVI.100:

     […] That they be not compelled to eate their owne donge, and drinke their owne stale with you?

   • 1548, Robert Record, Vrinal of Physick, XI.89:

     The stale of Camels and Goats […] is good for them that have the dropsie.

   • 1583, B. Melbancke, Philotimus:

     Or annoint thy selfe with the stale of a mule.

   • c. 1616, William Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra, I.iv.62:

     Thou did'st drinke The stale of Horses.

   • 1698, J. Fryer, New Acct. E.-India & Persia, p.242:

     Mice and Weasels by their poysonous Stale infect the Trees so, that they produce Worms.

   • 1733, W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farming, p.122:

     Sheep, whose Dung and Stale is of most Virtue in the Nourishment of all Trees.

Hypernyms

• See Thesaurus:urine

Derived terms

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (livestock, obsolete, intransitive) To urinate, especially used of horses and cattle.
   • 15th century, Lawis Gild, X in Ancient Laws and Customs of the Burghs of Scotland, 68:

     Gif ony stal in the yet of the gilde...he sall gif iiijd. to the mendis.

   • 1530, John Palsgrave, L'éclaircissement de la langue française, 732 1:

     Tary a whyle, your hors wyll staale.

   • 1631, Ben Jonson, Bartholmew Fayre I iv 64:

     Why a pox o' your boxe, once againe: let your little wife stale in it, and she will.

   • 1663, T. Killigrew, Parson's Wedding, I iii:

     I wonder [the knight's son] doth not go on all four too, and hold up his Leg when he stales.

   • 1903, Rudyard Kipling, Five Nations, 150:

     Cattle-dung where fuel failed; Water where the mules had staled; And sackcloth for their raiment.

   • c. 1920, Aleister Crowley, "Leigh Sublime":

     You stale like a mare
     And fart as you stale

   • 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin 2013, page 35:

     A mile or two before we got to the meet he stopped at an inn, where he put our horses into the stable for twenty minutes, ‘to give them a chance to stale’.

Usage notes

Occasionally transitive, when in reference to horses or men pissing blood.

Hypernyms

• See Thesaurus:urinate

See also

• piss like a racehorse (vulgar idiom)

Etymology 5

From Middle English stale (“bird used as a decoy”), probably from uncommon Anglo-Norman estale (“pigeon used to lure hawks”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic, probably *standan? (“to stand”). Compare Old English stælhran (“decoy reindeer”) and Northumbrian stællo (“catching fish”).

Noun

stale (plural stales)

1. (falconry, hunting, obsolete) A live bird to lure birds of prey or others of its kind into a trap.
   • c. 1440, Promp. Parv., 472 1:

     Stale, of fowlynge or byrdys takynge, stacionaria.

   • 1579, Thomas North, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, "Sylla", 515:

     Like vnto the fowlers, that by their stales draw other birdes into their nets.

   • 1608, R. Tofte translating Ludovico Ariosto, Satyres, IV 56:

     A wife thats more then faire is like a stale, Or chanting whistle which brings birds to thrall.

2. (obsolete) Any lure, particularly in reference to people used as live bait.
   • c. 1529, "The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng", 324, in John Skelton, Certayne Bokes:

     She ran in all the hast
     Vnbrased and vnlast...
     It was a stale to take
     the deuyll in a brake.

   • 1577, Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles, "The Historie of England, from the Time that It Was First Inhabited, Vntill the Time that It Was Last Conquered", 79 2:

     The Britaynes woulde oftentimes...lay their Cattell...in places conueniente, to bee as a stale to the Romaynes, and when the Romaynes shoulde make to them to fetche the same away,...they would fall vpon them.

   • 1615, George Sandys, A Relation of a Iourney begun An: Dom: 1610, I 66:

     ...many of the Coffamen keeping beaytifull boyes, who ?erue as ?tales to procure them cu?tomers.

   • 1670, J. Eachard, Grounds Contempt of Clergy, 88:

     Six-pence or a shilling to put into the Box, for a stale to decoy in the rest of the Parish.

3. (crime, obsolete) An accomplice of a thief or criminal acting as bait.
   • 1526, W. Bonde, Pylgrimage of Perfection, III:

     Their mynisters, be false bretherne or false sustern, stales of the deuyll.

   • 1633, S. Marmion, Fine Compan., III iv:

     This is Captain Whibble, the Towne stale, For all cheating imployments.

4. (obsolete) a partner whose beloved abandons or torments him in favor of another.
   • 1578, J. Lyly, Euphues, 33:

     I perceiue Lucilla (sayd he) that I was made thy stale, and Philautus thy laughinge stocke.

   • 1588, T. Hughes, Misfortunes Arthur, I ii 3:

     Was I then chose and wedded for his stale?

   • 1611, T. Middleton & al., Roaring Girle:

     Did I for this loose all my friends...to be made A stale to a common whore?

   • c. 1616, William Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, II i 100:

     But, too vnruly Deere, he breakes the pale And feedes from home; poore I am but his stale.

   • c. 1640, John Fletcher & al. Little French Lawyer, III iv:

     This comes of rutting: Are we made stales to one another?

5. (obsolete) A patsy, a pawn, someone used under some false pretext to forward another's (usu. sinister) designs; a stalking horse.
   • 1580, E. Grindal in 1710, J. Strype, Hist. E. Grindal, 252:

     That of the two nominated, one should be an unfit Man, and as it were a Stale, to bring the Office to the other.

   • 1595, William Shakespeare, Henry VI Part 3, III iii 260:

     Had he none else to make a stale but me?

   • 1614, W. Raleigh, Hist. World, I iv iii §19 239:

     Eurydice...meaning nothing lesse than to let her husband serue as a Stale, keeping the throne warme till another were growne old enough to sit in it.

   • 1711, J. Puckle, Club 20:

     A pretence of kindness is the universal stale to all base projects.

6. (crime, obsolete) A prostitute of the lowest sort; any wanton woman.
   • 1600, William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, II ii 23:

     Spare not to tell him, that he hath wronged his honor in marrying the renowned Claudio...to a contaminated stale.

   • 1606, S. Daniel, Queenes Arcadia, II i:

     But to be leaft for such a one as she, The stale of all, what will folke thinke of me?

   • c. 1641, Ralph Montagu, Acts & Monuments, 265:

     ...detesting as he said the insatiable impudency of a prostitute Stale.

7. (hunting, obsolete) Any decoy, either stuffed or manufactured.
   • 1681, J. Flavell, Method of Grace, XXXV 588:

     'Tis the living bird that makes the best stale to draw others into the net.

   • 1888, G. M. Fenn, Dick o' the Fens, 53:

     If my live birds aren't all drownded and my stales spoiled.

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (rare, obsolete, transitive) To serve as a decoy, to lure.
   • 1557, Tottel's Misc., 198:

     The eye...Doth serue to stale her here and there where she doth come and go.

References

Anagrams

• Astle, ETLAs, Slate, Teals, Tesla, astel, laste, lates, least, leats, salet, setal, slate, steal, stela, taels, tales, teals, telas, tesla

Friulian

Etymology

Of Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stallaz. Compare Romansch stalla, stala, Italian stalla, Venetian sta?a.

Noun

stale f (plural stalis)

1. cowshed
2. stable, stall
3. pigsty

Synonyms

• (cowshed): vacjarìe

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English stalu (“theft”), from Proto-Germanic *stal-.

Noun

stale

1. theft; the act of stealing
   • 1340, Ayenbite 9:

     Ine þise heste is vorbode roberie, þiefþe, stale, and gavel.

2. stealth (used in the phrase bi stale)
   • c. 1240, Sawles Warde in Cott. Hom., 249:

     Hire wune is to cumen bi stale...hwen me least cweneð.

References

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sta.l?/

Adverb

stale

1. constantly, continually

Related terms

• sta?y

Further reading

• stale in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• stale in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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.