damnify
English
WOTD – 16 March 2012
Etymology
From Old French damnifier, from Latin damnifico.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈdæmnɪfaɪ/
Audio (RP) (file)
Verb
damnify (third-person singular simple present damnifies, present participle damnifying, simple past and past participle damnified)
- (obsolete) To damage physically; to injure.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:
- he saw himselfe so freshly reare, / As if late fight had nought him damnifyde […]
- 1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, I:
- The infectious raines most damnifying the poore saylers, who must be upon the decks to hand in their sailes, abiding the brunt […]
- 1704, Daniel Defoe, The Storm:
- The High Tide at Bristol spoil'd or damnify'd 1500 Hogsheds of Sugars and Tobaccoes, besides great quantities of other Goods.
-
- (law) To cause injuries or loss to.
Derived terms
- indemnify
Related terms
- damn
- damnific
Translations
law: to cause injury or loss
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