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Webster 1913 Edition

Imprecate

Im′pre-cate

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Imprecated
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Imprecating
.]
[L.
imprecatus
, p. p. of
imprecari
to imprecate; pref.
im-
in, on +
precari
to pray. See
Pray
.]
1.
To call down by prayer, as something hurtful or calamitous.
Imprecate
the vengeance of Heaven on the guilty empire.
Mickle.
2.
To invoke evil upon; to curse; to swear at.
In vain we blast the ministers of Fate,
And the forlorn physicians
imprecate
.
Rochester.

Webster 1828 Edition

Imprecate

IM'PRECATE

,
Verb.
T.
[L. imprecor; in and precor, to pray. See Pray.]
To invoke, as an evil on any one; to pray that a curse or calamity may fall on one's self or on another person.

Definition 2024

imprecate

imprecate

English

Verb

imprecate ‎(third-person singular simple present imprecates, present participle imprecating, simple past and past participle imprecated)

  1. (transitive) To call down by prayer, as something hurtful or calamitous.
  2. (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; [...]

Related terms

Translations

Italian

Verb

imprecate

  1. second-person plural present indicative of imprecare
  2. second-person plural imperative of imprecare
  3. feminine plural of imprecato

Latin

Participle

imprecāte

  1. vocative masculine singular of imprecātus

Etymology

From Latin imprecari ‎(“to invoke (good or evil) upon, pray to, call upon”), from in ‎(“upon”) + precari ‎(“to pray”).

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