damp

adj

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.”

   “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.”

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

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

   “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.”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Moisture; humidity; dampness.

   “Ere twice in murk and occidental damp / Moist Hesperus hath quench’d his sleepy lamp,”

   “What means this chilling damp that clings around me! / Why do I tremble thus!”

   “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.”

   “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.”

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

2. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Fog; fogginess; vapor.

   “Night […] with black air / Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom.”

   “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—”

   “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, countable, uncountable)Dejection or depression; something that spoils a positive emotion (such as enjoyment, satisfaction, expectation or courage) or a desired activity.

   “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, 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.”

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

   “No sentiment of shame gave a damp to her triumph.”

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

4. (archaic, countable, historical, uncountable)A gaseous product, formed in coal mines, old wells, pits, etc.

   “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.”

5. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of damage-associated molecular pattern.
6. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, countable, uncountable)Acronym of deficits in attention, motor control and perception.

verb

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

   “Hydraulic shock absorbers are used to damp out vertical and lateral oscillations.”

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

   “to damp cloth”

   “It just damps a bit, but it een't not to sey reen.”

3. (archaic, transitive)To put out, as fire; to weaken, restrain, or make dull.

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

   “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.”

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

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

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

name

1. A municipality in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
2. A surname from German.
3. A surname from English.