damp

Etymology

From Middle English dampen (“to stifle; suffocate”). Akin to Low German damp, Dutch damp, and German Dampf (“vapor, steam, fog”), Icelandic dampi, Swedish damm (“dust”), and to German dampf imperative of dimpfen (“to smoke”). Also Middle English dampen (“to extinguish, choke, suffocate”). Ultimately all descend from Proto-Germanic *dampaz.

adj

1. In a state between dry and wet; moderately wet; moist.
   25 January 2017, Leena Camadoo writing in The Guardian, Dominican banana producers at sharp end of climate change Once the farms have been drained and the dead plants have been cut down and cleared, farmers then have to be alert for signs of black sigatoka, a devastating fungus which flourishes in damp conditions and can destroy banana farms.
   The lawn was still damp so we decided not to sit down.
   The paint is still damp, so please don't touch it.
2. (figurative) Despondent; dispirited, downcast.
   27 July 2016, Jane O’Faherty in The Irish Independent, Monarchs and prison officers win big on second race day Though Travis's 'Why does it always Rain on Me' boomed around the stands, there were few damp spirits in Galway on day two of the races.
3. Permitting the possession of alcoholic beverages, but not their sale.
   The Roadhouse was twenty-seve miles down the road from Niniltna, nine feet and three inches outside the Niniltna Native Association's tribal jurisdiction, and therefore not subject to the dry law currently in effect. Or was it damp? Kate thought it might have changed, yet again, at the last election, from dry to damp, or maybe it was from wet to damp. 2002, Dana Stabenow, A Fine and Bitter Snow, page 32

noun

1. Moisture; humidity; dampness.
   What means this chilling damp that clings around me! / Why do I tremble thus! 1764, Elizabeth Griffith, Amana, London: W. Johnston, act V, page 49
   Unceasing, soaking rain was falling; the very lamps seemed obscured by the damp upon the glass, and their light reached but to a little distance from the posts. 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 10, in Mary Barton
   We sometimes kept our Wellingtons on the whole day, leaving trails of mud and damp through the rooms. 2005, Kazuo Ishiguro, chapter 10, in Never Let Me Go, London: Faber, published 2010, page 115
2. (archaic) Fog; fogginess; vapor.
   Her chilling finger on my head, With coldest touch congealed my soul— Cold as the finger of the dead, Or damps which round a tombstone roll 1810, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Elizabeth Shelley, “Warrior”, in Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire, London: John Lane, published 1898, page 57
3. (archaic) Dejection or depression; something that spoils a positive emotion (such as enjoyment, satisfaction, expectation or courage) or a desired activity.
   1728, George Carleton (attributed to Daniel Defoe), The Memoirs of an English Officer, London: E. Symon, p. 72, But though the War was proclaim’d, and Preparations accordingly made for it, the Expectations from all receiv’d a sudden Damp, by the as sudden Death of King William.
   1866, James David Forbes, letter to A. Wills dated 2 January, 1866, in Life and Letters of James David Forbes, London: Macmaillan, 1873, p. 429, […] I was concerned to hear from your brother that Mrs. Wills’ health had prevented her accompanying you to Sixt as usual. It must have thrown a damp over your autumn excursion […]
4. (mining, archaic or historical) A gaseous product, formed in coal mines, old wells, pits, etc.
   There are sulphurous Vapours which infect the Vegetables, and render the Grass unwholsom to the Cattle that feed upon it: Miners are often hurt by these Steams. Observations made in some of the Mines in Derbyshire, describe four sorts of those Damps. 1733, John Arbuthnot, chapter 1, in An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies, London: Jacob Tonson, page 19

verb

1. (transitive, archaic) To dampen; to make moderately wet
   to damp cloth
2. (transitive, archaic) To put out, as fire; to weaken, restrain, or make dull.
   How many a day has been damped and darkened by an angry word! 1887, Sir John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life
   I do not mean to wake the gloomy form Of superstition dress'd in wisdom's garb, To damp your tender hopes 1744, Mark Akenside, The Pleasures of the Imagination
3. (transitive) To suppress vibrations (mechanical) or oscillations (electrical) by converting energy to heat (or some other form of energy).
   Hydraulic shock absorbers are used to damp out vertical and lateral oscillations. 1960 February, “The first of London's new Piccadilly Line trains is delivered”, in Trains Illustrated, page 93