damages

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of damage.

   Frost damages the young vines more than the summer heat ever does.

   Every leak damages the plaster a little further.

   Note

   In modern use the verb nearly always takes an object: frost damages the vines, a leak damages the plaster. The older objectless use, where a thing simply suffered harm, is now obsolete. Retail has a narrower trade use: a store that damages a dented can pulls it from the sales floor for processing. Keep it apart from the courtroom noun, which shares the spelling but not the grammar.

2. 2
   nounplural

   Money paid or awarded in a civil action to the person who brought the case, as compensation for a loss they suffered.

   The jury awarded damages of a size that surprised even the plaintiff's lawyers.

   Rather than face a trial, the publisher settled and paid damages for the false story.

   Similarcompensation, reparations, restitution

   Note

   In its legal sense the noun has no singular. A court awards damages, never a damage, and the verb is plural: the damages were paid. The singular damage names the harm itself, so a storm causes damage, but a court awards damages. The person who receives them has a different title in each system: claimant in England, pursuer in Scotland, plaintiff in the US. The term also reaches trade law, as in the WTO's non-retroactive damages.

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