tarnation

noun

1. (archaic, countable, regional, uncountable)The act or process of damnation or reprobation; hell.

   “What in tarnation is going on?”

   “I am Offul maazed. Wheer in tarnations es that theer plaguy girl?”

   “Them city fellers liked to died when they see me come in the office ! I says to 'em: "Had a tarnation of a time finding this place.”

   “"Now who in tarnation is Uncle Jobe?" asked Pa.”

   “Then where in tarnation is it?”

2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Someone or something that causes trouble; troublemaker.

   “I would say more, but RADLEY's come up to tell me I must go and meet that tarnation BANCROFT.”

   “I felt sort of odd all over, and I hadn't the least notion what could ail me; it warn't a very tedious feeling, though, but it seemed as if I was a dreaming yit, and all about that tarnation little Miss Miles.”

   “The year before that the young tarnations got up into the tower one night and hooked a rope onto the bell and stretched it across the campus into Professor Robert's barn.”

intj

1. (archaic)Used to express anger, irritation, disappointment, annoyance, contempt, etc.

   “"Tarnation! You all right?" "Hell, no, I ain't all right!"”

   ““They contain the precise description of the place where the nuggets are hidden.” “Tarnation! Is that true?"”

   ““Tarnation,” Jasper murmured, his attention turning to the thing in the Aether bubble.”

   ““Oh, what in the Sam Hill are you a-wearing? I thought I was supposed to be Twain.” “I say you are incorrect, sir. I believe we decided I would be Twain.” “Twin Twains? That dog won't hunt.” “Uh, Mr. Clemens?” “Mmhmm. That's me.” “No, I'm Twain. Switch costumes, you ignominious pretender.” “You're more stubborn than a senate mule.” “Grits, grits, grits!” “Tarnation!” “Fancy pants, big-city lawyer.” “I say you are incorrect, sir.””

adj

1. Bothersome; devilish.

   “Now you go 'long back to the house, Marm Winthrop, and if riding 'longside of a popish priest don't speerit me into the bottomless pit, I'll be blamed if I don't go some day into his church and find out what all that tarnation lingo means.”

   “It started over nothing, and would have come to nothing but for that tarnation liquor.”

   “Hello stranger, this is a fine fix you got into, getting a tarnation fever out in the Rockies, but my wife is the best hand at sick folks you ever see.”

2. Generic intensifier.

   “Some time in the month o' August, I think it wur, I found myself in London wi'out a tarnation cent.”

   “My love the strongest, a tarnation sight.”

   “I allow now, if I had asked you to loan me a handful of dollars, you might have looked as glum as a beaver in a trap ; but there's a tarnation difference between that and a civil question on the road.”

adv

1. Very; extremely.

   “He was so tarnation black you couldn't see him except in the middle of the day.”

   “Since Britannia ruled the waves, I guess it's a tarnation queer thing that she didn't rule 'em straighter.”

   “Well, that's tarnation strange !”

   “I know it is lonesome for you, but I will be with you again in time and then we can and will have a "tarnation good time."”