DAMAGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does damage mean? 

• DAMAGE (noun)
  The noun DAMAGE has 5 senses:

1. the occurrence of a change for the worse

2. loss of military equipment

3. the act of damaging something or someone

4. the amount of money needed to purchase something

5. any harm or injury resulting from a violation of a legal right

  Familiarity information: DAMAGE used as a noun is common.

• DAMAGE (verb)
  The verb DAMAGE has 2 senses:

1. inflict damage upon

2. suffer or be susceptible to damage

  Familiarity information: DAMAGE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DAMAGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The occurrence of a change for the worse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

damage; harm; impairment

Hypernyms ("damage" is a kind of...):

alteration; change; modification (an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "damage"):

detriment; hurt (a damage or loss)

deformation; distortion (a change for the worse)

ladder; ravel; run (a row of unravelled stitches)

Derivation:

damage (inflict damage upon)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Loss of military equipment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

damage; equipment casualty

Hypernyms ("damage" is a kind of...):

casualty (a decrease of military personnel or equipment)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "damage"):

battle damage; combat casualty (loss of military equipment in battle)

operational casualty; operational damage (loss of military equipment in field operations)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of damaging something or someone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

damage; harm; hurt; scathe

Hypernyms ("damage" is a kind of...):

change of integrity (the act of changing the unity or wholeness of something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "damage"):

defacement; disfiguration; disfigurement; mutilation (the act of damaging the appearance or surface of something)

wound; wounding (the act of inflicting a wound)

burn (damage inflicted by fire)

defloration (an act that despoils the innocence or beauty of something)

impairment (damage that results in a reduction of strength or quality)

Derivation:

damage (inflict damage upon)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The amount of money needed to purchase something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

damage; price; terms

Context example:

how much is the damage?

Hypernyms ("damage" is a kind of...):

cost (the total spent for goods or services including money and time and labor)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "damage"):

valuation (assessed price)

support level ((stock market) the price at which a certain security becomes attractive to investors)

cash price; spot price (the current delivery price of a commodity traded in the spot market)

purchase price (the price at which something is actually purchased)

factory price (price charged for goods picked up at the factory)

closing price ((stock market) the price of the last transaction completed during a day's trading session)

bid price ((stock market) the price at which a broker is willing to buy a certain security)

asking price; selling price (the price at which something is offered for sale)

highway robbery (an exorbitant price)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Any harm or injury resulting from a violation of a legal right

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

damage; legal injury; wrong

Hypernyms ("damage" is a kind of...):

injury (wrongdoing that violates another's rights and is unjustly inflicted)

• DAMAGE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they damage    ... he / she / it damages   
Past simple: damaged   
Past participle: damaged   
-ing form: damaging   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Inflict damage upon

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

She damaged the car when she hit the tree

Hypernyms (to "damage" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "damage"):

bang up; smash; smash up (damage or destroy as if by violence)

wear away; whittle away; whittle down (cut away in small pieces)

deflower; impair; mar; spoil; vitiate (make imperfect)

shatter (damage or destroy)

cut up; mangle; mutilate (destroy or injure severely)

eat away; erode; fret (remove soil or rock)

corrode; eat; rust (cause to deteriorate due to the action of water, air, or an acid)

blemish; flaw (add a flaw or blemish to; make imperfect or defective)

impair (make worse or less effective)

hurt; injure (cause damage or affect negatively)

afflict; smite (cause physical pain or suffering in)

disturb (damage as if by shaking or jarring)

bruise (damage (plant tissue) by abrasion or pressure)

total (damage beyond the point of repair)

break (render inoperable or ineffective)

bilge (cause to leak)

frost (damage by frost)

burn (damage by burning with heat, fire, or radiation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

damage (the act of damaging something or someone)

damage (the occurrence of a change for the worse)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Suffer or be susceptible to damage

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

These fine china cups damage easily

Hypernyms (to "damage" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

 Context examples 

DNA damage may be caused by normal cell actions, UV light, some anticancer drugs, and radiation used to treat cancer.

(ABT-888, NCI Dictionary)

Because equatorial regions receive approximately two times more UVR than more temperate regions, darker pigmentation in people from these regions is thought to reduce skin damage and cancer.

(New regions of the human genome linked to skin color variation in some African populations, National Institutes of Health)

A pigment that gives color to skin and eyes and helps protect it from damage by ultraviolet light.

(Melanin, NCI Dictionary)

Damage to the meninges can cause cell death in underlying brain tissue.

(Scientists watch the brain’s lining heal after a head injury, National Institutes of Health)

It is caused by neurological damage in the brain, specifically in the occipital or parietal lobes.

(Agnosia, NCI Thesaurus)

In mice down regulation of the AIF gene created harlequin mice with oxidative damage to neurons and increased neuronal cell death.

(AIF Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

This damages nerve cells by blocking their ability to make the proteins needed for synaptic function and leads to the death of neurons in the brain and spinal cord.

(Mechanism behind neuron death in motor neurone disease and frontotemporal dementia discovered, University of Cambridge)

While much of the world's population is susceptible to damaging earthquakes, the systems are currently operating in only a few regions around the globe, including Japan and Mexico.

(Crowdsourced Smartphone Data Could Give Advance Notice for People in Quake Zones, JPL)

"They are, indeed," said the Scarecrow, "and I am thankful I am made of straw and cannot be easily damaged. There are worse things in the world than being a Scarecrow."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Methoxyamine covalently binds to apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) DNA damage sites and inhibits base excision repair (BER), which may result in an increase in DNA strand breaks and apoptosis.

(Methoxyamine, NCI Thesaurus)