damned

(damd; also, as in oratory, damnid)

adjective

  1. condemned or deserving condemnation
  2. Informal deserving cursing; outrageous: now often a mere intensive: a damned shame

adverb

Informal very: a damned good job

See damned in American Heritage Dictionary 4

adjective damned·er (dămˈdər), damned·est (dămˈdĭst)
  1. Condemned, especially to eternal punishment.
  2. Informal Deserving condemnation; detestable: this damned weather.
  3. Used as an intensive: a damned fool.
adverb damneder, damnedest
Used as an intensive: a damned poor excuse.
noun
Souls doomed to eternal punishment.
Regional Note: There are many regional variants, mostly euphemisms, for damned, both as an oath and as a mild intensive. Southern exclamations and intensives tend to begin with dad-, a euphemism for “god”—hence dadblamed, dadblasted, dadburn, and dadgum. Dadgum can be combined with it in the interjection dadgummit. Another such euphemism is the better-known doggone, probably originally Southern but now widespread. Like dadgum, doggone is used as a mild intensive: “The best doggone deals in Alabama” (billboard in Montgomery). Doggone likewise appears in phrasal interjections: Doggonit, I dropped my hammer. A common Southern and South Midland variant of damned is durn, also euphemistic and relatively mild, as in this snatch of Baltimore dialogue: “If that's not just the weirdest durn thing I ever laid eyes on” (Anne Tyler).

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