cursed

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of curse.

   Stuck in traffic for an hour, she cursed under her breath.

   Legend says the tomb was cursed by the priests who sealed it.

   Note

   The regular -ed ending does both jobs here: the simple past (she cursed under her breath) and the participle after have or be (the tomb had been cursed). Middle English also wrote it curst. Before a noun the same spelling is usually the "under a curse" adjective, which unlike the verb form can be compared: more cursed, most cursed.

2. 2
   SayKUR-sidUS/ˈkɝsɪd/UK/ˈkɜːsɪd/

   adjective

   Under a curse, such as harm sent by a god, a sickness, or some other affliction laid on by a supernatural power.

   Every expedition that entered the cursed valley met with disaster.

   After the third flood in as many years, the farmers began to feel that their land was cursed.

   Similardoomed, bewitched, accursed

   Oppositeblessed

   Note

   Middle English already formed this adjective from curse plus -ed, and its literal sense is the one legends and fairy tales lean on: the cursed valley, the cursed ring. Comparison goes either way, so a place can be more cursed or curseder than the next, and the most cursed or cursedest of all.

3. 3
   adjectivecolloquial

   Frightening or unsettling, or described that way as a joke.

   The thread is full of cursed images: empty hallways, blurry faces, a doll staring straight at the camera.

   Mayonnaise-flavored ice cream is the most cursed thing I've seen all week.

   Similarcreepy, unsettling, disturbing, eerie

   Note

   The meaning is at home online, where the phrase to know is cursed image: a picture that unsettles for reasons hard to name. Brian Feldman's What Makes a Cursed Image? in New York (2016) quotes the anonymous author behind the @cursedimages account on that general uneasy feeling, from a direct stare at the camera to an orb floating in the background.

4. 4
   SayKUR-sidUS/ˈkɝsɪd/UK/ˈkɜːsɪd/

   adjective

   Deserving to be hated or damned, often said in anger about something that causes trouble.

   He spent the whole weekend fighting with that cursed lawnmower.

   Those cursed mosquitoes kept us awake half the night.

   Similardamned, blasted, wretched, infernal, confounded

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