bedamp

English

Etymology

From be- +‎ damp. Compare Dutch bedampen.

Verb

bedamp (third-person singular simple present bedamps, present participle bedamping, simple past and past participle bedamped)

1. (transitive) To cover with dampness; make damp; dampen.
   • 1912, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Our Old Home:

     Before I reached our lodgings, the dusk settled into streets, and a mist bedewed and bedamped me and I went astray, as is usual with me, and had to inquire my way; […]

   • 1922, William Bowman Tucker, Laurentian Tales, page 174:

     Nor is it sense to prostitute the kirk
     With pleas of faith in God for business weal,
     When lack of enterprise bedamps your zeal.

   • 2013, Sammy Mapes, Elysian Fell, page 5:

     “Hallowed is the gleet that bedamps the repentant's nerve - sacred is the golden channel spurting from the kindness of liberty's expiring worldbeater - […] ”