curse
profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger
How often you will meet it
Rank 2,761 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 6,019 times across 175,177 chapters — 0.003% of every word in the library.
What it means
noun
- profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger also: curse word, expletive, oath, swearing, swearword, cuss expletives were deleted
- an appeal to some supernatural power to inflict evil on someone or some group also: execration, condemnation
- an evil spell also: hex, jinx, whammy a witch put a curse on his whole familyhe put the whammy on me
- something causing misery or death also: bane, scourge, nemesis the bane of my life
- a severe affliction also: torment
verb
- utter obscenities or profanities also: cuss, blaspheme, swear, imprecate The drunken men were cursing loudly in the street
- heap obscenities upon The taxi driver who felt he didn't get a high enough tip cursed the passenger
- wish harm upon; invoke evil upon also: beshrew, damn, bedamn, anathemize, anathemise, imprecate The bad witch cursed the child
curse in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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At last, after a few moments' scrutiny, Rupert broke into a curse.
The Club of Queer Trades · G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton · Chapter 1
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But a curse on the cruel mother That burnt my golden shell!’
The Yellow Fairy Book: The Grateful Beasts · World Traditions (Celtic, Norse, Asian & Persian) · Chapter 1
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For both could baffle Babel's lingual curse, And speak in Bion's Doric, and rehearse Cleanthes' hymn or Virgil's sounding verse.
Pennsylvania Pilgrim, and other poems Part 6 From — Volume I · John Greenleaf Whittier · Chapter 1
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Rustics declare them to be silver, and account for their crumbling on the theory that the metal is under a curse.
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land — Volume 02 · Charles M. (Charles Montgomery) Skinner · Chapter 1
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Take heed, that in thy verse Thou dost the tale rehearse, Else dread a dead man's curse; For this I sought thee.
The Complete Poetical Works of Henry · Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Chapter 1