Wiktionary

dampen

See also: dämpen

English

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Etymology

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From damp +‎ -en.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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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[1], London: BBC, retrieved 2020-05-22:
      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

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  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

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Translations

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Anagrams

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Danish

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Noun

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dampen c

  1. definite singular of damp

Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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

Verb

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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
Inflection
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Conjugation of dampen (weak)
infinitive dampen
past singular dampte
past participle gedampt
infinitive dampen
gerund dampen n
present tense past tense
1st person singular damp dampte
2nd person sing. (jij) dampt, damp2 dampte
2nd person sing. (u) dampt dampte
2nd person sing. (gij) dampt dampte
3rd person singular dampt dampte
plural dampen dampten
subjunctive sing.1 dampe dampte
subjunctive plur.1 dampen dampten
imperative sing. damp
imperative plur.1 dampt
participles dampend gedampt
1) Archaic. 2) In case of inversion.
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

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dampen

  1. plural of damp

Middle English

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Verb

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dampen

  1. Alternative form of dampnen

Norwegian Bokmål

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Noun

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dampen m

  1. definite singular of damp

Norwegian Nynorsk

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Noun

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dampen

  1. definite singular of damp
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