This man is damp.
- The definition of damp is something that is slightly wet.
A shirt that was taken out of the dryer before it is completely dry is an example of something that would be described as damp.
- Damp is defined as to try to restrain or limit something, or to make something slightly wet.
- When you dab a shirt with a wet towel to get a stain out and you make the shirt slightly wet, this is an example of when you damp.
- When you try to stop yourself from feeling sad and crying, this is an example of when you damp your emotions.
- When you reduce how hot or bright a fire is burning, this is an example of when you damp.
- a slight wetness; moisture
- a harmful gas sometimes found in mines; firedamp; blackdamp
- Archaic a dejected or depressed state
Origin of dampMDu, vapor, steam, akin to OHG, MHG, German dampf ; from Indo-European base an unverified form dhem-, to smoke, mist from source dank
- somewhat moist or wet; humid
- dejected; depressed
- to make damp; moisten
- to slow the combustion of (a fire) by cutting off most of the air supply; bank: usually with down
- to check or reduce (energy or action)
- to check or deaden the vibration of (a piano string, drum membrane, etc.)
- to reduce the amplitude of (oscillations, waves, etc.)
- Slightly wet: a damp sponge.
- Humid: damp air.
- Archaic Dejected; depressed.
- a. Moisture in the air; humidity: Come in out of the damp.b. Moisture that lies or has condensed on something: “I saw the damp lying on the bare hedges and spare grass” (Charles Dickens).
- Foul or poisonous gas that sometimes pollutes the air in coal mines.
- Archaic a. Lowness of spirits; depression: “An angry or sorrowful [countenance] throws a sudden damp upon me” (David Hume).b. A restraint or check; a discouragement: “The issue of arms was so slow as to throw a great damp upon volunteering” (James Franck Bright).
transitive verbdamped, damp·ing, damps
- To make damp or moist; moisten.
- To suppress or extinguish (a fire) by reducing or cutting off air.
- To restrain or check; discourage: news that damped our enthusiasm.
- Music To slow or stop the vibrations of (the strings of a keyboard instrument) with a damper.
- Physics To decrease the amplitude of (an oscillating system).
Origin of dampMiddle English, poison gas, perhaps from Middle Dutch, vapor.
(comparative damper, superlative dampest)
(countable and uncountable, plural damps)
(third-person singular simple present damps, present participle damping, simple past and past participle damped)
- (archaic) To dampen; to render damp; to moisten; to make humid, or moderately wet; as, to damp cloth.
- (archaic) To put out, as fire; to depress or deject; to deaden; to cloud; to check or restrain, as action or vigor; to make dull; to weaken; to discourage.
- To suppress vibrations (mechanical) or oscillations (electrical) by converting energy to heat (some other form of energy).
- To damp your tender hopes - Mark Akenside
- Usury dulls and damps all industries, improvements, and new inventions, wherein money would be stirring if it were not for this slug - Francis Bacon
- How many a day has been damped and darkened by an angry word! - Sir John Lubbock
- The failure of his enterprise damped the spirit of the soldiers. - Thomas Babington Macaulay
- Hollow rollers damp vibration. - 
- M.D. Pa.
Akin to Low German damp, Dutch damp, and Danish damp (“vapor, steam, fog”), German Dampf, Icelandic dampi, Swedish damm (“dust”), and to German dampf imperative of dimpfen (“to smoke”). Also Old English dampen (“to choke, suffocate”).