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.
A jury awarded him $1.25 million in damages, which were upheld by a state appeals court.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 27, 2026
Musk, who had sought as much as $134 billion in damages, has since renounced any personal benefit, pledging to redirect any award to the OpenAI nonprofit.
From Barron's • Apr. 27, 2026
Sepsis, which can be life-threatening and is difficult to spot, is an emergency reaction to infection where the immune system overcompensates and damages tissues and organs.
From BBC • Apr. 26, 2026
On Monday, the Federal High Court ordered that he be freed, awarded him more than $3,500 in damages for human rights violations and told the security agencies to apologise.
From BBC • Apr. 24, 2026
Neither the state nor the state police can be sued for damages.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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.
