damages
Britishplural noun
Explanation
Damages are the official amount of money awarded to the winner in a law suit. If you're hurt in a car accident that's another driver's fault, you may end up collecting damages. The legal term damages usually refers to money that's owed or received to compensate someone for a loss or an injury. If a business owner's negligence — not clearing ice from a sidewalk, for example — causes you to be injured, you can sue her for damages to pay for your broken arm and the days of work you had to miss. Sometimes a court awards "punitive damages" as well, which are specifically intended to punish the defendant.
Vocabulary lists containing damages
The Skin I'm In
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Hitler Youth
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City of the Plague God
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He is a hype artist who never delivers what he promises and damages everything he touches.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026
Ideas include capping liabilities, raising evidence standards or making it harder to hold taxpayers liable for all of the damages in cases that public entities are only partly responsible for.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
According to the course syllabus, students examine questions such as: Who is responsible when a self-driving car injures someone or damages property?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
The ill-fated wood-pellet trades that bankrupted Enviva during the sustainable-investing boom were made by executives hoping to trigger their own bonuses, according to creditors who are seeking more than $2 billion in damages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
There were neighbors to be apologized to and damages to be compensated for with money that Anthony couldn’t spare.
From "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
