imprecate
English
Etymology
From Latin imprecari (“to invoke (good or evil) upon, pray to, call upon”), from in (“upon”) + precari (“to pray”).
Verb
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
Translations
to call down by prayer
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to invoke evil upon
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Further reading
- imprecate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- imprecate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- imprecate at OneLook Dictionary Search
Italian
Latin
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