| 1. | a person or thing that damps or depresses: His glum mood put a damper on their party. |
| 2. | a movable plate for regulating the draft in a stove, furnace, etc. |
| 3. | Music.
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| 4. | Electricity. an attachment to keep the indicator of a measuring instrument from oscillating excessively, as a set of vanes in a fluid or a short-circuited winding in a magnetic field. |
| 5. | Machinery. a shock absorber. |
| 6. | Australian.
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adjective, -er, -est, noun, verb | 1. | slightly wet; moist: damp weather; a damp towel. |
| 2. | unenthusiastic; dejected; depressed: The welcoming committee gave them a rather damp reception. |
| 3. | moisture; humidity; moist air: damp that goes through your warmest clothes. |
| 4. | a noxious or stifling vapor or gas, esp. in a mine. |
| 5. | depression of spirits; dejection. |
| 6. | a restraining or discouraging force or factor. |
| 7. | to make damp; moisten. |
| 8. | to check or retard the energy, action, etc., of; deaden; dampen: A series of failures damped her enthusiasm. |
| 9. | to stifle or suffocate; extinguish: to damp a furnace. |
| 10. | Acoustics, Music. to check or retard the action of (a vibrating string); dull; deaden. |
| 11. | Physics. to cause a decrease in amplitude of (successive oscillations or waves). |
| 12. | damp off, to undergo damping-off. |

damp (dāmp) adj. damp·er, damp·est
damp off Botany To be affected by damping off. [Middle English, poison gas, perhaps from Middle Dutch, vapor.] damp'ish adj., damp'ly adv., damp'ness n. |