imprecation
/ɪmprɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n
/noun formal
A spoken curse: I pushed my way through, screaming imprecations...
- Screaming imprecations and struggling wildly, she had to be held down by several guards while I cut the splint off her arm.
- He is, at this moment, hunched over his unstolen cellphone in tears, begging, pleading, mumbling imprecations for me to call him and relieve his torment.
- The prisoners shouted imprecations against the government, proclaimed their innocence, and in some cases waved crutches and prosthetic limbs to show that they were not the dangerous guerrilla fighters they are alleged to be.
Synonyms
curse, malediction, anathema;
North American hex;
Irish cess
archaic execration, malison, ban
swear word, curse, expletive, oath, profanity, four-letter word, obscenity, epithet, dirty word;
(imprecations) swearing, cursing, blaspheming, blasphemy, sacrilege, bad language, foul language, strong language, colourful language;
North American cuss word
archaic execration
Derivatives
imprecatory
/ adjective ...- It may reflect a limitation to Nehemiah's great strengths or it may reflect zeal for the glory of God, as similarly reflected in the imprecatory psalms and prayers in the Old and New Testaments.
- Early on, many Christian interpreters resorted to non-literal and allegorical readings of the Old Testament, especially of such difficult passages as the imprecatory psalms.
- The discussion of imprecatory psalms raises many skeptical questions.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin imprecatio(n-), from imprecari 'invoke (evil)', from in- 'towards' + precari 'pray'.