damned

1. 1
   adjective

   Profane variant of damn, used to express contempt, exasperation, or similar feelings toward someone or something.

   I've spent all morning trying to get this damned printer to work.

   Somebody's damned car alarm has been going off for an hour.

   Note

   Placed before a noun, it reports the speaker's temper rather than any quality of the thing: a damned printer has only refused to print. It is as profane as the shorter damn it varies, so it suits casual speech among people who will not mind. The comparative is written damneder or damnder and the superlative damnedest or damndest, alongside more damned and most damned.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of damn.

   Critics damned the new stadium design as ugly and wasteful.

   A single leaked email had damned his chances of promotion.

   Note

   One spelling serves as both the simple past and the past participle: voters damned the proposal; the proposal was damned by its cost. Every meaning of the verb is a judgment against something, whether a sentence of doom, a verdict that wrecks a reputation, or a curse. The cursing use can sound vulgar, and an archaic one calls down damnation outright.

3. 3
   adverbmildly vulgar

   Very; to a great degree.

   Why is everyone so damned cheerful at six in the morning?

   You know damned well that the rent was due on Friday.

   Similarreally, very, darned, bloody

   Note

   A mildly vulgar booster that modifies an adjective or adverb, as in so damned important, where the exasperated adjective modifies a noun. It adds impatience along with degree. Among friends it passes almost unnoticed; in an office email or formal writing it reads as coarse, and really or very gives the same emphasis without the edge.

4. 4
   adjective

   Abandoned by God; godforsaken.

   The fresco above the altar shows the damned being dragged down into the flames.

   In the poem, damned spirits wander forever outside the gates of heaven.

   Similarcursed, doomed, accursed, condemned, lost

   Oppositesaved, blessed, redeemed

   Note

   Here the word carries its full religious weight, describing a soul's fate rather than the speaker's mood. It often takes the and stands as a noun for all such souls together, as in Iron Maiden's “Children of the Damned” (1982). Used this way it is solemn rather than coarse, so it belongs in a sermon or a poem where the exasperated intensifier never could.

5. 5
   adjectiveabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of I'll be damned.

   Damned if I'll apologize for telling the truth.

   Damned if I can see why they changed the schedule.

   Note

   The speaker swallows the I'll be and leads with the oath itself, usually followed by an if-clause. The sentence comes out negative though it contains no not: damned if I know is a shrug of ignorance, and damned if I'll pay is a flat refusal. The full phrase can sound vulgar to some ears, and the shortened one carries the same risk.

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