damned, ppl. a.
(dæmd, poet. ˈdæmnɪd)
[f. damn v. + -ed1.]
1. † a. Condemned, judicially sentenced. Obs.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 113 Dampnyd, dampnatus. 1495 Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 48 §2 Felons, fugitif, outlawed, convicte and dampned persones. 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utop. i. (Arb.) 49 Condempned to be common laborers..In some partes..these seruing men (for so be these dampned persons called) do no common worke. 1616 Brent tr. Sarpi's Hist. Counc. Trent (1676) 442 To shew what Books did contain damned or Apocryphal Doctrine. 1821 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Witches, The reveries of the cell-damned murderer. |
b. Condemned by publicly expressed disapproval, as a play, etc.: also transf. of an author.
| 1708 Pope Let. to Cromwell 10 May, Damnation follows death in other men, But your damn'd Poet lives and writes agen. 1710 Ibid. 17 May, I am, it must be own'd..dead in a poetical Capacity, as a damn'd Author. |
2. a. Theol. Doomed to or undergoing eternal punishment; condemned or consigned to hell.
| 1393 Gower Conf. I. 189 O dampned man to helle. 1508 Fisher Wks. (1876) 20 The dampned spyrytes. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 382 Damned spirits all, That in crosse-waies and flouds haue buriall. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 482 For neither do the spirits damn'd Lose all their virtue. 1882 Rossetti Ballads & Sonn., Rose Mary ii. 43 Full well hath thy treason found its goal, O thou dead body and damnèd soul. |
b. absol. as n. pl. The souls in hell, ‘the lost’.
| ? 1507 Communyc. C ij, The payne..That dampned haue in hell. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii, It was torment To lay upon the damn'd. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxviii. 242 The place of the Damned. 1827 Pollok Course T. v, In dreadful apparition, saw before His vision pass the shadows of the damned. |
c. See quot. (Cf. F. âme damnée.)
| a 1791 Grose Olio, Grumbler viii. (1796) 30 Men who attend at the Custom house, under the denomination of Damned Souls, in order, for a certain fee, to sware out any goods whatsoever for the merchants. |
† 3. Lying under, or worthy of, a curse; accursed, damnable, execrable. Obs. exc. as in 4, or as a conscious extension of 2.
| 1563 Nowell in Liturg. Serv. Q. Eliz. (1847) 493 Filthy and dampned Mahomet, the deceiver of the world. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 48 A damned writing was subscribed by the young emperour her son. 1605 Shakes. Macb. v. i. 39 Out damned spot: out I say. 1667 Sir R. Moray in Lauderdale Papers (1885) II. lv. 88 There is a Damned book come hither from beyond sea called Naphtali, or the Wrestlings of the Church of Scotland. 1792 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ode to Burke Wks. 1812 III. 35 What Bat-like Demon, with the damn'dest spite, Springs on thy fame. 1871 B. Taylor Faust (1875) I. xix. 174 And so, though even God forgive, On earth a damned existence live. |
4. a. Used profanely as a strong expression of reprehension or dislike, or as a mere intensive. Now usually printed ‘d―d’. In the Southern U.S., a common epithet prefixed to Yankee.
| 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. v. i. 122 Where is that damned villaine Tranio? 1664 Butler Hud. ii. ii. 832 And streight another with his Flambeaux, Gave Ralpho's o'er the eyes a damn'd blow. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xvi. ii, It is a d―d lie, I never offered him anything. 1812 Weekly Reg. III. 45/1 Take the middle of the road or I'll hew you down, you d'―d Yankee rascal. 1818 H. B. Fearon Sk. Amer. 210 His friend..said that there was ‘nothing in America but d―d Yankies and rogues, and that it was not fit for a dog to live in’. 1830 Galt Lawrie T. (1849) ii. i. 42 The pigs may do their damnedst with me. 1833 H. Barnard Let. 30 Apr. in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1918) XIII. 361 It is only surpassed by their hatred of the d―d Yankees. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair lv, You would be a d― fool not to take the place. 1865 N.Y. Even. Post 28 Sept. 1/1 They swore to some men of a cavalry patrol camped across the river, that they would shoot the first d―d Yankee who tried to cross the bridge. |
b. as adv. Damnably.
| 1757 Lloyd Satyr & Pedlar Poet. Wks. I. 57 Damn'd's the superlative degree; Means that alone and nothing more..Examples we may find enough, Damn'd high, damn'd low, damn'd fine, damn'd stuff. 1768 Foote Devil on 2 Sticks i. Wks. 1799 II. 251 How damn'd hot it is! 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xiii, I believe she's d―d fond of me. |
c. Substantival use of superlative in phr. one's damnedest (damndest): (a) the worst one can do, the utmost evil or harm possible; (b) one's very best effort (the usual recent sense).
| 1830 [see damned ppl. a. 4 a]. 1846 J. J. Hooper Adv. Simon Suggs xii. 144, I..tried my d―dst, but it wouldn't grind no way. 1891 H. Herman His Angel 176 Now do your damnedest at your peril. 1928 S. Vines Humours Unreconciled xviii. 237 She..had done her ‘damnedest’ to please him. 1932 S. Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm xx. 268 Reuben..gave her thirty pounds with which to do her damndest. 1955 Times 31 Aug. 5/3 The frenzy of fanaticism invites choir and orchestra to do their damnedest. 1958 Hayward & Harari tr. Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago i. vi. 183 Now, do your damnedest to get hold of a cab. |
Hence † ˈdamnedly adv.
| 1607 Tourneur Rev. Trag. iii. vi, Sup. Fell it out so accursedly? Amb. So damnedly? 1675 R. Head Art of Wheedling 186 He mortgages his Soul to the Devil, by swearing damnedly there is not a cleaner piece of Wine between Aldgate and Westminster. |