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dampen

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: dämpen

English

Etymology

From damp +‎ -en.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈdæmpən/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -æmpən

Verb

dampen (third-person singular simple present dampens, present participle dampening, simple past and past participle dampened)

  1. (transitive) To make damp or moist; to make moderately wet.
  2. (intransitive) To become damp or moist.
  3. (transitive) To lessen; to dull; to make less intense (said of emotions and non-physical things).
    We won't let the bad news dampen our spirits.
    • 1883 "Pomona's Daughter", Frank R. Stockton, in The Century, vol. XXVI, number 1, May, page 25
      He was dreadfully familiar with everything, and talked about some places we were longing to see in a way that considerably dampened our enthusiasm.
    • 2007 October 16, Jane E. Brody, “Despite Strides, Listeria Needs Vigilance”, in The New York Times:
      Pregnant women are 20 times as likely as other healthy young women to contract listeriosis, probably because in pregnancy the immune system is dampened to prevent rejection of the fetus.
    • 2020 May 20, “J&J to sell baby powder in UK despite stopping US sales”, in BBC‎, London: BBC, retrieved 22 May 2020:
      The firm said changes in consumer behaviour had also dampened demand for the powder.
  4. (transitive, proscribed) To suppress vibrations (mechanical) or oscillations (electrical) by converting energy to heat (or some other form of energy).[usage 1]
  5. (intransitive) To become damped or deadened.

Usage notes

  1. [U 1]
    Due to confusion with the similar-looking verb damp, overgeneralization from the nearby sense of "to lessen or to dull", and/or conflation of transitive "damp" with intransitive "dampen", "dampen" is increasingly used in nontechnical contexts as a synonym for "damp", especially in the case of "dampened" versus "damped". However, this usage is still considered incorrect in technical contexts.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

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Danish

Noun

dampen c

  1. definite singular of damp

Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From damp +‎ -en. The meaning “to vape” is a semantic loan from English.

Verb

dampen

  1. (intransitive) to steam, to give off steam or smoke
  2. (intransitive) to vape (to inhale the vapour of an electronic cigarette)
    Synonym: vapen
Conjugation
More information Conjugation of (weak), infinitive ...
Derived terms

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

dampen

  1. plural of damp

Middle English

Verb

dampen

  1. alternative form of dampnen

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

dampen m

  1. definite singular of damp

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

dampen

  1. definite singular of damp

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