imprecate
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Latin imprecari (“to invoke (good or evil) upon, pray to, call upon”), from in (“upon”) + precari (“to pray”).
Verb [edit]
imprecate (third-person singular simple present imprecates, present participle imprecating, simple past and past participle imprecated)
- (transitive) To call down by prayer, as something hurtful or calamitous.
- (transitive) To invoke evil upon; to curse; to swear at.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 119
- To sailors, oaths are household words; they will swear in the trance of the calm, and in the teeth of the tempest; they will imprecate curses from the topsail-yard-arms, when most they teeter over to a seething sea; [...]
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 119
Related terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
to call down by prayer
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to invoke evil upon
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External links [edit]
- imprecate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- imprecate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- imprecate at OneLook Dictionary Search
Italian [edit]
Verb [edit]
imprecate
- second-person plural present indicative of imprecare
- second-person plural imperative of imprecare
- Feminine plural of imprecato
Latin [edit]
Participle [edit]
imprecāte
- vocative masculine singular of imprecātus
