English▸ adjective slightly wet:
her hair was still damp from the shower.
▸ noun
1 moisture diffused through the air or a solid substance or condensed on a surface, typically with detrimental or unpleasant effects:
the house reeked of mold and damp.
▪ foul, stifling, or poisonous gas, especially in a mine.
▪ (damps) archaic damp air or atmosphere:
the damps of the valley.
▸ verb [with object]
2 make a fire burn less strongly by reducing the flow of air to it:
he damped down the fire for the night.
▪ control or restrain (a feeling or a state of affairs):
she tried to damp down her feelings of despair.
3 restrict the amplitude of vibrations on (a piano or other musical instrument) so as to reduce the volume of sound:
rapidly damping the cymbals after repeatedly clashing them together.
▪ Physics progressively reduce the amplitude of (an oscillation or vibration):
concrete structures damp out any vibrations.
– ORIGIN Middle English (in the noun sense ‘noxious inhalation’): of West Germanic origin; related to a Middle Low German word meaning ‘vapor, steam, smoke’.