Origin of darn
from Middle French dialect, dialectal darner, to piece together, mend from Breton darn, a piece from Indo-European base an unverified form der-, to pull off, split apart from source tear
A woman darns a sock.
- Darn is defined as a way to show disappointment or dismay, as a more proper version of the word "damn."
When you slam your finger with a hammer but you do not want to shout a swear word, this is an example of a time when you would shout "darn!"
- To darn is defined as to fix a hole in cloth by weaving a patch across the hole.
When you use thread to weave a patch a hole in a sock, this is an example of a time when you darn the sock.
MLA Style
"darn." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 22 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Darn>.
APA Style
darn. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22nd, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Darn
darn

MLA Style
"darn." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 22 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Darn>.
APA Style
darn. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22nd, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Darn
darn

verb
darned, darn·ing, darnsverb
transitiveverb
intransitivenoun
Origin of darn
French dialectal darner perhaps from Norman French darne piece from Breton darninterjection
adverb
adjective
transitive verb
darned, darn·ing, darnsOrigin of darn
Alteration of damn
MLA Style
"darn." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 22 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Darn>.
APA Style
darn. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22nd, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Darn
- (euphemistic) Damn.
(third-person singular simple present darns, present participle darning, simple past and past participle darned)
- Euphemism of damn.
Alteration of damn
(third-person singular simple present darns, present participle darning, simple past and past participle darned)
- darning needle
(plural darns)
- A place mended by darning.
From Middle English dernen (“to keep secret, hide, conceal (a hole)”), from Old English diernan (“to hide, conceal”), from dierne (“secret”), from Proto-Germanic *darnijaz (“secret”). More at dern.
MLA Style
"darn." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 22 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Darn>.
APA Style
darn. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22nd, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Darn
Sentence Examples
- Other frustrations: we're just too darn busy, but how do we make a living, get dinner on the table, do the laundry, snuggle with our kids, and maintain a friendship, let alone a marriage, and not be busy?!
- Yes, CPAP can improve the quality of sleep and the quality of day to day life, but for a while, especially if there are problems with the CPAP mask, it can be hard to remember how CPAP improves life when it's so darn annoying.
- Atkins won a grand total of 14 Grammy Awards in his storied career.Chet Atkins can do darn near anything on the guitar, and his fingerstyle playing is some the fastest, most complicated, most technical playing around.
- In this case, the halls were humid, I was in pain, and let's face it, I let myself get pretty darn out of shape over the past nine months so pacing the hallways was more strenuous than usual.
- I wasn't fooling myself; I knew darn well that by the time I got the thumbs-up sign from my doctor to exercise, I would have long forgotten how to squat and do those abdominal crunches!