DAMAGING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does damaging mean? 

• DAMAGING (adjective)
  The adjective DAMAGING has 2 senses:

1. (sometimes followed by 'to') causing harm or injury

2. designed or tending to discredit, especially without positive or helpful suggestions

  Familiarity information: DAMAGING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DAMAGING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(sometimes followed by 'to') causing harm or injury

Synonyms:

damaging; detrimental; prejudicial; prejudicious

Context example:

the reporter's coverage resulted in prejudicial publicity for the defendant

Similar:

harmful (causing or capable of causing harm)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Designed or tending to discredit, especially without positive or helpful suggestions

Synonyms:

damaging; negative

Context example:

negative criticism

Similar:

destructive (causing destruction or much damage)

 Context examples 

“It is now critical to determine whether exposure to pesticides has the potential to turn normal cells into cancer cells by acting as endocrine disruptors or by damaging DNA.”

(Pesticides blamed for rise in colon cancer deaths, SciDev.Net)

The drug must also avoid damaging healthy cells to prevent side effects.

(Injectable nanoparticles deliver cancer therapy in mice, NIH)

The immune system mistakenly attacks your own tissues, damaging your adrenal glands.

(Addison Disease, NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

It contains the metal platinum and may kill cancer cells by damaging their DNA and stopping them from dividing.

(BMS-182751, NCI Dictionary)

Used experimentally as a mutagen and carcinogen, ethylnitrosourea alkylates DNA and proteins, thereby damaging DNA and inducing point mutations.

(Ethylnitrosourea, NCI Thesaurus)

According to a new study, it may be possible to teach machines how to pick out features in neurons and other cells that have not been stained or undergone other damaging treatments.

(Scientists teach computers how to analyze brain cells, National Institutes of Health)

A 60-year-old mystery about the source of energetic, potentially damaging particles in Earth's radiation belts has been solved using data from a shoebox-sized satellite built and operated by students.

(Six-decade-old space mystery solved with shoebox-sized satellite called a CubeSat, National Science Foundation)

CWD is a type of brain-damaging and fatal prion disease found in deer, elk and moose; in humans, prion diseases can take more than a decade to develop.

(Study finds no chronic wasting disease transmissibility in macaques, National Institutes of Health)

Appropriating electron(s) from a nearby molecule and damaging that molecule by altering the electron number in its outermost electron shell, Free Radicals produce tissue damage.

(Free Radical Formation, NCI Thesaurus)

Chemically unstable, free radicals stabilize themselves by appropriating an electron from a nearby molecule, thereby damaging that molecule by altering the electron number in its outermost electron shell.

(Free radical, NCI Thesaurus)