imprecation

Learned borrowing from Latin imprecātiō (“calling down of curses”), from imprecor (“call down, invoke”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˌɪm.pɹɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, /ˌɪm.pɹəˈkeɪ.ʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

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imprecation (countable and uncountable, plural imprecations)

1. The act of imprecating, or invoking evil upon someone; a prayer that a curse or calamity may befall someone.
   • 1679, [John] Dryden, [Nathaniel] Lee, Oedipus: A Tragedy. […], London: […] R. Bentley and M. Magnes […], →OCLC, Act I, page 15:

     Hear then this dreadful imprecation; hear it: / 'Tis lay'd on all; not any one exempt: […]

   • 1893, Stephen Crane, chapter 10, in Maggie, Girl of the Streets:

     Her son turned to look at her as she reeled and swayed in the middle of the room, her fierce face convulsed with passion, her blotched arms raised high in imprecation. "May Gawd curse her forever," she shrieked.

2. A curse.
   • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter III, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

     Mr. Gamfield growled a fierce imprecation on the donkey generally, but more particularly on his eyes; and, running after him, bestowed a blow on his head.

   • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter V, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

     He drank the spirits and impatiently bade us go; terminating his command with a sequel of horrid imprecations too bad to repeat or remember.

   • 1905, Upton Sinclair, chapter XVII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →OCLC:

     All life had turned to rottenness and stench in them--love was a beastliness, joy was a snare, and God was an imprecation.

• reimpaction