Dictionary

imprecate en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈɪmpɹəkeɪt/

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin imprecātus, perfect active participle of imprecor (“to invoke (good or evil) upon, pray to, call upon”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from in- (“upon”) + precor (“to pray”).

Meanings

1. (transitive) To call down by prayer, as something hurtful or calamitous.
   • 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 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 119”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

imprecator · imprecatingly

Relateds

imprecation · imprecatory

Translations (20)

bg пожелавам зло (to invoke evil upon) · ota لعنتلمك (to invoke evil upon) · es imprecar (to invoke evil upon) · ota لعنتلمك (to call down by prayer) · oc imprecar (to invoke evil upon) · la imprecor (to invoke evil upon) · ru проклина́ть (to invoke evil upon) · pl złorzeczyć (to call down by prayer) · pl przekląć (to invoke evil upon) · fi manata (to call down by prayer) · fi manata (to invoke evil upon) · la exsecror (to invoke evil upon) · ru проклина́ть (to call down by prayer) · fi kirota (to call down by prayer) · es imprecar (to call down by prayer) · oc escomenjar (to invoke evil upon) · fi kirota (to invoke evil upon) · pl przeklinać (to invoke evil upon) · bg проклинам (to call down by prayer) · pl przekląć (to call down by prayer)