imprecate

American  

[im-pri-keyt] / ˈɪm prɪˌkeɪt /

verb (used with object)

imprecated, imprecating

1. to invoke or call down (evil or curses), as upon a person.

   Synonyms:

   anathematize, execrate, curse, denunciate

   Antonyms:

   bless

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imprecate British  

/ ˈɪmprɪˌkeɪt /

verb

1. (intr) to swear, curse, or blaspheme

2. (tr) to invoke or bring down (evil, a curse, etc)

   to imprecate disaster on the ship

3. (tr) to put a curse on

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Other Word Forms

• imprecator noun
• imprecatory adjective
• unimprecated adjective

Etymology

Origin of imprecate

First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin imprecātus, past participle of imprecārī “to invoke, pray to or for,” equivalent to im- “in” + prec- “pray” + -ātus past participle suffix; im- ¹, pray, -ate ¹

Example Sentences

So they implore and imprecate, turning themselves into the ugliest and fiercest creatures they can, to frighten the evil spirits that they believe have come against them on the outspread wings of the storm.

From My Friends the Savages Notes and Observations of a Perak settler (Malay Peninsula) by Sanpietro, I. Stone

Bowing my head to think—to pray—to imprecate, I lost all sense of time and place.

From Heralds of Empire Being the Story of One Ramsay Stanhope, Lieutenant to Pierre Radisson in the Northern Fur Trade by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)

O Man: Pass not all heedless by, nor imprecate This aged relic of the past because It lies across thy path!

From The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 6 by Various

"Swear!" he said: "imprecate a curse upon thyself if thou hast said anything untrue to save thy master."

From The Childhood of King Erik Menved An Historical Romance by Ingemann, Bernhard Severin

Then rose a roar of indignation against the Englishmen who had dared, under the hypocritical pretence of devotion, to imprecate curses on England.

From The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 3 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron