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Damaging   /dˈæmɪdʒɪŋ/   Listen
Damaging

adjective
1.
(sometimes followed by 'to') causing harm or injury.  Synonyms: detrimental, prejudicial, prejudicious.  "The reporter's coverage resulted in prejudicial publicity for the defendant"
2.
Designed or tending to discredit, especially without positive or helpful suggestions.  Synonym: negative.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Damaging" Quotes from Famous Books



... and the big man were the opposing forces in what was transpiring—Sanderson knew that from Miss Bransford's manner of answering the big man's question. Her "yes" had been uttered reluctantly. Her testimony was damaging—she knew it, and her sympathies were with the young man with the ...
— Square Deal Sanderson • Charles Alden Seltzer

... we will do our best to avoid damaging young trees. (Old trees can probably look after themselves where the Ski-er is concerned as they are usually ...
— Ski-running • Katharine Symonds Furse

... they cost me. At Fredericksburg I took in flour on freight for Norfolk; but my ill-luck still pursued me. In unloading the vessel, the cargo forward being first taken out, she settled by the stern and sprang a leak, damaging fifteen barrels of flour, which were thrown upon my hands. I then sailed for the eastern shore of Virginia, and at a place called Cherrystone traded off my damaged flour for a cargo of pears, with which I sailed for New York. I proceeded ...
— Personal Memoir Of Daniel Drayton - For Four Years And Four Months A Prisoner (For Charity's Sake) In Washington Jail • Daniel Drayton

... said, standing on a great advertisement of a universal history—"now that I am not damaging the furniture, pull yourself together and think. How am I to get to the stable? I ...
— The Lowest Rung - Together with The Hand on the Latch, St. Luke's Summer and The Understudy • Mary Cholmondeley

... "until the coroner comes, and proves or disproves his theory of murder. If he questions you, you'd better say nothing for the present. From his point of view what you remember of last night would be only damaging." ...
— The Abandoned Room • Wadsworth Camp

... this trait in common, that their damaging effect is often felt by the offspring as well as the parent, and, in most cases, in a far higher degree. The common doctrine of hereditary disease implies the actual transmission of a specific form ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, Number 59, September, 1862 • Various

... not know, I am sure. I understand that the evidence against him is damaging. But we are not awaiting the outcome of that. He may manage to have the charge against him dismissed, and we are going ahead ...
— The Brand of Silence - A Detective Story • Harrington Strong

... so close to the Germans is that they cannot shell us without damaging their own trench as much as ours, so that, although we heard plenty going along overhead, we ...
— One Young Man • Sir John Ernest Hodder-Williams

... which ensued between Lord Temple and Lord Northington, a tone of asperity insensibly displaces the amicable dispositions with which it opens, and shows that the political discord which had been sown by the "unprincipled coalition," was not without a damaging influence upon the private relations of public men. Lord Temple, after sacrificing much of his own personal feelings to adapt his withdrawal to the convenience of Lord Northington, at last expressed his resolution—at any risk of consequences—not to be in Dublin on the 4th of ...
— Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of George the Third - From the Original Family Documents, Volume 1 (of 2) • The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos

... say that I see no reason for your supposing I misunderstood your expression of damaging the white races in the native mind, unless you have no other notion of protection than that ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 18 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... of gold, as compared with the national currency, has a most damaging effect upon the increase and development of the country, in keeping up prices of all articles necessary in everyday life. It fosters a spirit of gambling, prejudicial alike to national morals and the ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Ulysses S. Grant • James D. Richardson

... though, I believe the authorities agree. No one denies that it is a damaging indulgence for boys. It means a good deal when smoking is forbidden to the pupils in the polytechnic schools in Paris, and the military schools in Germany, purely on hygienic grounds. The governments of these smoking nations are not likely to be ...
— Choice Readings for the Home Circle • Anonymous

... visit, till towards its close, the contrast between the two men was so marked and strong, so disadvantageous to him whom Mrs. Hazleton sought to favor, that she would have given much to have had Ayliffe away from such a damaging companion. At length she could endure it no longer, and contrived to send him to seek for some flowers which she pretended to want, and which she knew he would not readily find in ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851 • Various

... was not composed of Beverley Sands' initials. Evidently the parcel had been crammed into the first handy receptacle, for it was all but too big to go in, and Clo found it difficult to extract without damaging the seals. Leaving the bag on the seat, she hid the envelope under the smart, white cloth cape which went with her ...
— The Lion's Mouse • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... Antwerp at a height of 5,000 feet, to escape the almost continuous German fire, Lieut. Marix succeeded in locating the Zeppelin hangars at Dusseldorf. Then descending to a height of only 1,000 feet he released two bombs when directly over them, damaging both hangars and aircraft. A German bullet passed through Lieut. Marix's cap and the wings of his aeroplane were pierced in a dozen places, but he succeeded in returning to the burning city of Antwerp, which he was ordered to leave ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell

... appearance, as if straining to be off and away. First he moves the Controls to see that everything is clear, for sometimes when the Aeroplane is on the ground the control lever or "joy-stick" is lashed fast to prevent the wind from blowing the controlling surfaces about and possibly damaging them. ...
— The Aeroplane Speaks - Fifth Edition • H. Barber

... among our younger writers to speak slightingly and flippantly of Emerson, referring to him as outworn, and as the apostle of the obvious. This view is more discreditable to the young people than is their criticism damaging to Emerson. It can make little difference to Emerson's fame, but it would be much more becoming in our young writers to garland his name with flowers than to utter ...
— The Last Harvest • John Burroughs

... that he was out looking for one was to go where he was to be found. It wouldn't look right to leave town without giving Hargus a chance to state his business; it would be a move subject to misinterpretation, and damaging to a man's ...
— The Duke Of Chimney Butte • G. W. Ogden

... Dix stand out, and go to law about the dam; it was unquestionably Wakem who had caused Mr. Tulliver to lose the suit about the right of road and the bridge that made a thoroughfare of his land for every vagabond who preferred an opportunity of damaging private property to walking like an honest man along the highroad; all lawyers were more or less rascals, but Wakem's rascality was of that peculiarly aggravated kind which placed itself in opposition to that form of right embodied in Mr. Tulliver's interests ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot

... Froude, doubtless to keep his political countrymen in countenance with regard to the Negro question. We have already pointed out the futility of this proceeding on our author's part, and suggested how damaging it might prove to the cause he is striving to uphold. "Blacks of exceptional quality," like the two gentlemen he has specially mentioned, "will avail themselves of opportunities to rise." Most certainly they will, Mr. Froude—but, for the present, ...
— West Indian Fables by James Anthony Froude Explained by J. J. Thomas • J. J. (John Jacob) Thomas

... you are sharp enough to see why you should not. A word of this repeated at any club would put an end at once to your project, and would be very damaging to me. And, beyond that, I wouldn't wish him to know that I had meddled with it at all. I am very chary of having my name connected with anything of the kind; and, upon my word, I wouldn't do it for any living human being but yourself. ...
— He Knew He Was Right • Anthony Trollope

... winds, however, do not seem to have been damaging any body or thing but the Governor and his cause. During the month of October the crown officials urged the local authorities to billet the troops in the town; but this demand was quietly and admirably met by setting against ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862 • Various

... practice, although poor, the guns and shells being hopelessly ancient, had become so annoying and so distressing that it was determined to adopt a policy of reprisals, taking the form of sorties, and by bayonetting the gunners and damaging the guns if we could not drag them off, to induce the enemy to make his offensive less galling. The ball was opened by an attack which was miserably conducted on the selfsame gun that had so harshly treated that little post I have described a few days before. On the 1st of the month, ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale

... down to Charlie's presence, to the rather flat correctness that made Jevons stand out. Another thing I noticed was that, in labouring for refinement in his surroundings, Jevons hadn't allowed for the effect of contrast. It hadn't occurred to him that an interior that harmonized with Viola would be damaging to him. And it was. Just how damaging I hadn't realized until to-night (which shows how careful he must have been at Canterbury). He didn't stand out. He burst out. He never sank into his background for a single minute. You had to be aware of him ...
— The Belfry • May Sinclair

... than it is now, patient of culture, as such. It says to everything, "Be useful to me, or away with you." And to the learned, the unlearned man said then, as he does now, "What is the use of all your learning, unless you can tell me what I want to know? I am here blindly groping about, and constantly damaging myself by collision with three mighty powers, the power of the invisible God, the power of my fellow Man, and the power of brute Nature. Let your learning be turned to the study of these powers, that I may know how I am to ...
— Science & Education • Thomas H. Huxley

... unknown in the writer and itself unlikely to recur. Also that there were certain things in it—especially the travesties of names and subjects of which the author practically knew nothing—the repetition and extension of which was likely to be damaging, if not fatal. In two or three years the "fatality" of which Victor Hugo himself was dangerously fond of talking (the warning of Herodotus in the dawn about things which it is not lawful to mention has been too often neglected) ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury

... the horrible facts at her disposal were damaging enough in all conscience: but they did not content her. She invented a love-story, assuming that Hedrick was living it: he was supposed to be pining for Lolita, to be fading, day-by-day, because of enforced separation; and she contrived this to such an effect of reality, ...
— The Flirt • Booth Tarkington

... prohibit the issuance of any more of the bonds, but the provision requiring a vote of the people before those already out could be paid was practically repudiation, and the state labored under that damaging stigma for over twenty years. Attempts were made to obtain the sanction of the people for the payment of these bonds, but they were defeated, until it became unpleasant to admit that one was a resident of Minnesota. Whenever the name of Minnesota was heard on the floor ...
— The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier • Charles E. Flandrau

... the threat, yet it could be seen that he was badly cut up by the damaging of the plane. Frank said nothing, but threw an arm over his shoulder as they walked back to the house, and for the remainder of the journey neither had much to say, leaving it to the girls to carry the burden ...
— The Radio Boys with the Revenue Guards • Gerald Breckenridge

... persistent, always repair the very next day the most damaging injuries inflicted on them by experience. Their least dangerous effect is to lead to prescribing the impractical, as if ordering the impractical were not really an attack on discipline, and did not result in disconcerting officers and men by the unexpected and by surprise ...
— Battle Studies • Colonel Charles-Jean-Jacques-Joseph Ardant du Picq

... Nyoda's going away he had been forgotten entirely for a whole week, and of course nothing would be done about his execution until she returned. Kaiser Bill was making the most of his reprieve by breaking bounds every day and damaging property to ...
— The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit - Or, Over the Top with the Winnebagos • Hildegard G. Frey

... resources: natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, talc, barites, sulphur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones Land use: arable land: 12% permanent crops: 0% meadows and pastures: 46% forest and woodland: 3% other: 39% Irrigated land: 26,600 km2 (1989 est.) Environment: damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains; soil degradation, desertification, overgrazing, deforestation, pollution, flooding ...
— The 1993 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... flexible and transpositive, that the legends derive no little of their characteristic features as well as melody of utterance from these traits. Sometimes these terms cannot be literally translated, and they cannot, in these cases, be left out without damaging ...
— The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American Indians • Henry R. Schoolcraft

... rules for the behavior of any man who has the faintest pretension to being a gentleman, is that never by word or gesture must he compromise a woman; he never, therefore, writes a letter that can be construed, even by a lawyer, as damaging to any ...
— Etiquette • Emily Post

... guns, which had come, as it seemed, from the forgotten other side of eternity. The rough head of Harold appeared over the cloud's edge, and insinuated itself pathetically under her arm. Very carefully and very painfully the witch reached a kneeling position, damaging her refuge with every movement in spite of her care. She gasped with pain, and Harold tried to look very strong and hopeful to comfort her. He straightened his back, and she crawled into the saddle. The tremor of their launching split the cloud into several parts, ...
— Living Alone • Stella Benson

... at the other, trying hard to reconcile the vindictiveness of these words and the woman's previous action in giving damaging testimony against Corrigan, with the significant fact that Corrigan had been in her room the night before, presumably as a guest. Hester caught the look and laughed. "Yes, dearie, he deserves it. How much do you know of what ...
— 'Firebrand' Trevison • Charles Alden Seltzer

... and I wrote quite effusively to one another apologising for the exuberance of our friends. A week later, when certain upholders of my cause bombarded Stridge's emporium with an assortment of Stridge's own eggs, hitting one of Mr Stridge's white-jacketed assistants in the eye, and severely damaging the frontage of Mr Stridge's Italian warehouse—whereupon local and immediate supporters of the cause of Stridge squared matters by putting three bombardiers into a horse-trough—Mr Stridge and I expressed no sort of regret to one another whatsoever, but referred scathingly, amid ...
— The Right Stuff - Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton • Ian Hay

... to attack was early given after heartening speeches by the Christian leaders and tent-to-tent visitations by the clergy. An Egyptian army was reported as approaching and the report greatly encouraged the besieged. The besiegers were infuriated by a damaging resistance, whose strength and energy they had underrated. The battle opened with a fierceness unparalleled. Javelins, stones, and beams were hurled in such numbers that some met in the air and both fell on the besiegers. Flaming torches ...
— Peter the Hermit - A Tale of Enthusiasm • Daniel A. Goodsell

... boy, don't let these damaging delays prejudice you against Congress. Don't use such strong language; you talk like a newspaper. Congress has inflicted frightful punishments on its members—now you know that. When they tried Mr. Fairoaks, and a cloud of witnesses proved him to be—well, you know what they proved him to ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... be as clear and as transparent as possible, and perfectly ripe; pick off the stalks, and remove the stones, damaging the fruit as little as you can. Make a syrup with the above proportion of sugar, by recipe No. 1512; mix the cherries with it, and boil them for about 15 minutes, carefully skimming them; turn them gently into a pan, and ...
— The Book of Household Management • Mrs. Isabella Beeton

... similar vein of protest is the letter of G.Hartmann[37] to Denis, dated Tbingen, February 10, 1773, in which the writer condemns the affected sentimentalism of Jacobi and others as damaging to morals. "Obest teacher," he pleads with Denis, "continue to ...
— Laurence Sterne in Germany • Harvey Waterman Thayer

... is a wooden club," answered the little man, "and I'm sure the creatures mean mischief, by the looks of their eyes. Even these revolvers can merely succeed in damaging a few of their wooden bodies, and after that we ...
— Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz • L. Frank Baum.

... Plusham played croquet, and none badly. Next to their purity of blood and great wealth, the family were famous for this accomplishment. Yet Lothaw soon tired of the game, and after seriously damaging his aristocratically large foot in an attempt to "tight croquet" the Lady Aniseed's ball, he limped ...
— The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales • Bret Harte

... amicable, except that there was a slight contest between the sisters whether they should dress alike, as Eleanor wished, while Jean had eyes and instinct enough to see that the colours and forms that set her fair complexion and flaxen tresses off to perfection were damaging to Elleen's freckles and general auburn colouring. Hitherto the sisters had worn only what they could get, happy if they could call it ornamental, and the power of choice was a novelty to them. ...
— Two Penniless Princesses • Charlotte M. Yonge

... the same route, and journeyed in company till points of divergence were reached, where many temporary friendships were brought to a close, though some there were which, although very recently formed, withstood firmly the damaging effects of ...
— The Settler and the Savage • R.M. Ballantyne

... to the subsequent testimony, or hears it in such prejudiced fashion that he sees everything in his own way. In this case, however, it is not difficult to tell what the person in question has decided upon. If the action we now know follows a very damaging piece of testimony, the defendant is condemned thereby; if it follows excusive testimony he is declared innocent. Anybody who studies the matter may observe that these manifestations are made by a very large number of jurymen with sufficient clearness to make it possible to count the votes and ...
— Robin Hood • J. Walker McSpadden

... ordeal, he used not rarely. It was designed to meet cases of slander in which there was no direct and positive evidence. If a good woman had been accused of unchastity in that vague way of rumour which is always more damaging and devilish than open accusation, she might of her own free choice, or by compulsion of the Bishop, put to silence her false accusers by appearing in church, with witnesses ready to take oath that they believed her, and there swearing at the altar that common fame ...
— The Little Manx Nation - 1891 • Hall Caine

... off to my room, as he called it, and it was so grand that I crept about it on tiptoe for fear of damaging something. There was everything a young man could want except clothes, and Master Freake laughingly assured me that they (meaning Margaret and himself) had puzzled for hours to see if they could manage them, but had given ...
— The Yeoman Adventurer • George W. Gough

... Ambermere's being refused admittance. In point of fact it did wipe the gilt off when, about an hour afterwards, Georgie went to lunch because he told her. And if there had been any gilt left about anywhere, that would have vanished, too, when in answer to some rather damaging remark she made about poor Daisy's interests in the love-affairs of other people's servants, she learned that it was of the love-affairs of their superiors that all Riseholme had been talking for at least ...
— Queen Lucia • E. F. Benson

... the house, contrary to custom, did not grow impatient of such tactics and call loudly for more damaging effort. It waited. A minute and a half passed—two minutes—and they were going faster—faster. And then Holliday, grinning into Perry's face, winked broadly and swung wildly with his right. Perry stepped ...
— Winner Take All • Larry Evans

... the efforts to abstain are seriously made the strain involved is harmful to the health and temper—if the efforts do not succeed the minds of husband and wife are troubled by doubts and anxieties which are damaging to their intimate relationships. And, moreover, if this harmful restraint succeeds in preventing conception there eventuates the inevitable prevalence of sex excitement followed by abortive and half-realised satisfaction, and the enhanced ...
— Love—Marriage—Birth Control - Being a Speech delivered at the Church Congress at - Birmingham, October, 1921 • Bertrand Dawson

... rather damaging to any joke to explain it," I replied, "and your only hope of getting at ours is to live into it. One feature of it is the confusion of foreigners at the sight of our men's willingness to subordinate themselves ...
— A Traveler from Altruria: Romance • W. D. Howells

... think that you had better go and comfort yourself with your dear friend Cigole, your father's intended murderer?" said he at length. "Cigole told me all about this long ago. He told me many things about his life which would be slightly damaging to his character as a witness, but I don't mind telling you that the worst thing against him in English eyes is his betrayal of your father. But this seems to have been a very slight matter to you. It's odd too; I've always supposed that Italians ...
— Cord and Creese • James de Mille

... the mayor's office were hereafter instructed to note as witnesses the times of arrival and departure of Mrs. Brandon and Mr. Sluss. A note that he wrote to Mrs. Brandon was carefully treasured, and sufficient evidence as to their presence at hotels and restaurants was garnered to make out a damaging case. The whole affair took about four months; then Mrs. Brandon suddenly received an offer to return to Washington, and decided to depart. The letters that followed her were a part of the data that was finally assembled in Mr. Stimson's ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser

... to say the best that can be said for the persons with whom they deal. But very few people in this world would care to listen to the real defence of their own characters. The real defence, the defence which belongs to the Day of Judgment, would make such damaging admissions, would clear away so many artificial virtues, would tell such tragedies of weakness and failure, that a man would sooner be misunderstood and censured by the world than exposed to that awful and merciless eulogy. ...
— Robert Browning • G. K. Chesterton

... another car, hooting violently to them to get out of the way. Unable to stop the oncoming car in time, Dick tried to move aside, failed, and in less than a minute the newcomer, in spite of brakes swiftly adjusted, crashed into them, smashing their lamp, and badly damaging the back ...
— Winding Paths • Gertrude Page

... he's good enough for Suzette," she observed to herself, with a snort that expressed itself somewhere in the nostrils of the brain. Then with a smiling air of heavy patronage she delivered herself of her one idea of a damaging counter-stroke. ...
— The Unbearable Bassington • Saki

... a most damaging criticism; and a criticism which seems to gather weight as we look about us and observe the terrible results which have occurred when the State has been allowed to manipulate opinion for its own ends. No Englishman will need ...
— The School and the World • Victor Gollancz and David Somervell

... much for night bombing. By day it is different. Though at night it is the billets which usually form the target, by day bombing is carried out for the purpose of damaging specific objects. Railroads, dumps of stores and ammunition, and enemy aerodromes are the ...
— Aircraft and Submarines - The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day - Uses of War's Newest Weapons • Willis J. Abbot

... altogether wrong: the presence of a man incapable of a falsehood, and that man devoted to her, was a little damaging to Severne, though not so much as Miss ...
— The Woman-Hater • Charles Reade

... one pleased of the character of Mary. Queen of Scots; but a highly unfavourable view would scarcely be accepted by Scottish audiences. Similarly, it would be both dangerous and unprofitable to present on the English stage any very damaging "scandal about Queen Elizabeth." Historical criticism, I understand, does not accept the view that Robespierre was mainly responsible for the Reign of Terror, and that his death betokened a general revolt against his sanguinary tyranny; but ...
— Play-Making - A Manual of Craftsmanship • William Archer

... dreamed of the cousin, and schemed for his coronet, when she said it. And I was unseen, and I must not write; and the absent are always in the wrong—when cousins are present! And I hear your mother speak of me—hear the soft sound of her damaging praises. 'Another long speech from your clever admirer! Don't fancy he frets; that kind of man thinks of nothing but blue-books and politics.' And your cousin proposes, and you say with a sigh, 'No; I am bound to Guy Darrell'; and your mother says to my Lord, 'Wait, and still come—as a cousin!' ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... States,[272] where Chief Justice Taft wrote: "The second objection to Sec. 315 is that the declared plan of Congress, either expressly or by clear implication, formulates its rule to guide the President and his advisory Tariff Commission as one directed to a tariff system of protection that will avoid damaging competition to the country's industries by the importation of goods from other countries at too low a rate to equalize foreign and domestic competition in the markets of the United States. It is contended that the only power of Congress in the levying of customs ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin

... as containing harmful levels of sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxide; acid rain is damaging and potentially deadly to the earth's fragile ecosystems; acidity is measured using the pH scale where 7 is neutral, values greater than 7 are considered alkaline, and values below 5.6 are considered acid precipitation; note - a pH of 2.4 (the acidity ...
— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States

... "But more damaging than any other is the criticism which Foxe receives at the hands of Mr. James Gairdner, the fullness of whose knowledge is matched only by the calm judicial manner in which he deals with the martyrologist's stories as he encounters them in his own history. Discussing each case on its merits, ...
— Studies from Court and Cloister • J.M. Stone

... spring tide and an easterly wind, the Dutch pressed on, and broke the chain, though fortified by some ships, which had been there sunk by orders of the duke of Albemarle. They burned the three ships which lay to guard the chain—the Matthias, the Unity, and the Charles V. After damaging several vessels, and possessing themselves of the hull of the Royal Charles, which the English had burned, they advanced with six men-of-war and five fireships as far as Upnore Castle, where they burned the Royal Oak, the Loyal London, and the Great James. Captain ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part F. - From Charles II. to James II. • David Hume

... party were next called upon, and nothing very damaging to Radnor was produced. He seemed to be in his usual spirits before entering the cave, and no one, it transpired, had seen him after he came out, though this was not noted at the time. Also, no one had noticed him in conversation ...
— The Four Pools Mystery • Jean Webster

... I maintain that it is not possible for business affairs at Athens to stand on any very different footing from the present, except to some slight extent, by adding here and deducting there. Any large modification is out of the question, short of damaging the democracy itself. No doubt many expedients might be discovered for improving the constitution, but if the problem be to discover some adequate means of improving the constitution, while at the same time the democracy ...
— The Polity of the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians • Xenophon

... of July, the mutiny of the troops, the successful insurrection of the mob, the destruction of the Bastile, and the visit of Louis to Paris, had been a series of damaging blows to the Government; and as each successive exploit gave encouragement to the movement party, events proceeded with extreme rapidity. Necker, who returned to Versailles on the 27th of July, showed more clearly than ...
— The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France • Charles Duke Yonge

... minute's rest, feinted with the charge of deceitfulness, and nearly got home heavily with "What would Phyllis say if she knew?" Garnet, however, side-stepped cleverly with "But she won't know," and followed up the advantage with a damaging, "Besides, it's all for the best." The round ended with a brisk rally on general principles, Garnet crowding in a lot of work. Conscience down twice, and only saved by ...
— Love Among the Chickens • P. G. Wodehouse

... contract he is proposing. For example, Dealer bids one No-trump; Second Hand, two Royals; Third Hand holds six Hearts, headed by the Knave, without another trick. Under these conditions, a Heart bid would be most misleading, and probably most damaging. The Dealer may not be able to help the Heart declaration, and he may very properly be encouraged by it to believe that the Third Hand has considerable strength, especially in Hearts, but is very weak in Spades. If, in consequence of this supposed information, ...
— Auction of To-day • Milton C. Work

... engaging a maiden as Melodious Vision," said Pe-lung in a voice not devoid of reproach. "Had you but confided in me more fully I should certainly have cautioned you in time. As it is, you have ended by notching your otherwise capable weapon beyond repair and seriously damaging the scanty cloak I wear"—indicating the numerous rents that marred his dress of costly fur. "No wonder dejection ...
— Kai Lung's Golden Hours • Ernest Bramah

... the man who, without any family ties, commits suicide; for example, were I to do the thing this evening, who would have a right to call me to account? I am alone in the world, have no family to support and, so far from damaging any one, should even benefit my heir by my accelerated death. However, I am no advocate for suicide under any circumstances; there is something undignified in it, unheroic, un-Germanic. But if you must commit suicide—and there is no knowing to what people may be brought—always contrive ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow

... frequently, to destroy the wires of the lines themselves. Lightning discharges between clouds frequently induce charges in lines sufficient to damage apparatus connected with the lines. Heavy rushes of current in lines, from lightning causes, occasionally induce damaging currents in adjacent lines not sufficiently exposed to the original cause to have been injured without this induction. The lightning hazard is least where the most lines are exposed. In a small city with all of the lines formed of exposed wires and all of them used as grounded circuits, ...
— Cyclopedia of Telephony & Telegraphy Vol. 1 - A General Reference Work on Telephony, etc. etc. • Kempster Miller

... responsibility. In point of fact, juries are hardly to be blamed for this, since the law itself is antiquated and the subject one abounding in difficulty. Unfortunately the opportunity for vague yet damaging testimony on the part of experts, the ease with which any desired opinion can be defended by a slight alteration in the hypothetical facts, and the practical impossibility of exposure, have been seized upon with avidity by a score or ...
— Courts and Criminals • Arthur Train

... this exclamation he has his way, though the story proper is still a good way off. Perhaps not all of these hortatory stanzas were commonly used; any or all of them could certainly be omitted without damaging the poem. But they were there to be used, according to the judgment of the jongleur and the temper of his audience, and their presence in the poem is very suggestive of the special difficulties in the art of ...
— The Epic - An Essay • Lascelles Abercrombie

... life. How so? Well, just be patient a minute and I will tell you. I was almost a stranger in A.P. when I first met your mother. It was at a social where Frank Miller was a guest. I had heard some very damaging reports concerning his reputation, but from the manner in which he was received in society, I concluded that I had been misinformed. Surely, I thought, if the man is as vicious as he has been represented, good ...
— Trial and Triumph • Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

... Vane, who deeply admired the Boston prophetess, left the country in disgust. Mrs. Hutchinson was arraigned at the bar as if she had been a criminal of the most dangerous kind. Winthrop, who presided, catechised her mercilessly, and all endeavoured to extort from her some damaging admission. But in this they were unsuccessful. "Mrs. Hutchinson can tell when to speak and when to hold her tongue," commented the governor, in describing the court proceedings. Yet when all is said, the "trial" was but a mockery, and those who read the ...
— The Romance of Old New England Rooftrees • Mary Caroline Crawford

... city, that the merchandise was worth nothing; and if the ship "San Martin" had come here a satisfactory and cheap cargo could have been obtained, perhaps even in greater quantity than at Macao. Instead of damaging this city, those persons would have been enriched, who on account of greed were unable to see the damage done to all of us. Thus God has punished them all, by depriving them of that profit the desire for which had blinded them to ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, V7, 1588-1591 • Emma Helen Blair

... commerce. Even our commission houses operating on the spot are so few that in handling many lines there is the greatest danger of their sacrificing the building up of a steady trade to the opportunities of unduly heavy profits now and then, and so damaging our general commercial interests. Then we must send many ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 2, May, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various

... we should avoid negative ideas for our own sakes, much more should we do so for the sake of other people. Gloomy and despondent men and women are centres of mental contagion, damaging all with whom they come in contact. Sometimes such people seem involuntarily to exert themselves to quench the cheerfulness of brighter natures, as if their Unconscious strove to reduce all others to its own low level. ...
— The Practice of Autosuggestion • C. Harry Brooks

... seen. There is nothing for it, when the brain is on fire with the whirling of its wheels, but to spring against the stone wall and silence them with one crash. Ah, they remembered that,—the kind city fathers,—and the walls are nicely padded, so that one can take such exercise as he likes without damaging himself on the very plain and serviceable upholstery. If anybody would only contrive some kind of a lever that one could thrust in among the works of this horrid automaton and check them, or alter their rate of going, what would the ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes

... John, I came up to his chair: he spent some three minutes in thrusting out his tongue at me as far as he could without damaging the roots: I knew he would soon strike, and while dreading the blow, I mused on the disgusting and ugly appearance of him who would presently deal it. I wonder if he read that notion in my face; ...
— Jane Eyre - an Autobiography • Charlotte Bronte

... was deemed legitimate by those familiar with its affairs—and the combination began by selling large blocks of the stock for future delivery, at a point or two below the market. Then stories about the corporation began to be circulated upon the street, of the most damaging character—stories of fraud, peculation, and rapidly diminishing business—stories of maturing combinations against the company—stories of the imminent retirement of men deemed essential to the management. The air was full of rumors. One ...
— Sevenoaks • J. G. Holland

... French, so she stopped at a terrible violet and screamed—no, she didn't. She didn't scream anything; for she was choking for breath. But she did pulverize that piece of ginger cake; and she looked at Stoffel and his mother in a manner that would have been most damaging for her if those two persons had happened to ...
— Walter Pieterse - A Story of Holland • Multatuli

... Coneyberry in Betsome, being in the parish of Southfleet, in Kent, two miles from Gravesend, and in the ground sometimes belonging to a farmer there, called John Bradley;" but on this his editor adds the damaging note: "I have been told that our author himselfe planted that Peionee there, and afterwards seemed to find it there by accident; and I do believe it was so, because none before or since have ever seen or heard of it growing wild since in any part of ...
— The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare • Henry Nicholson Ellacombe

... lips of Somerset; and he suffered himself once more to be set down to table with his innocent and criminal acquaintance. Once more the plotter plunged up to the neck in damaging disclosures: now it would be the name and biography of an individual, now the address of some important centre, that rose, as if by accident, upon his lips; and each word was like another turn of ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 5 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... the prospect of remaining alone in the cabin with him had not crushed her—had not brought the hysterical protests that he had feared. She was plainly pleased, possibly considering the thing an adventure which would have no damaging consequences. ...
— The Trail Horde • Charles Alden Seltzer

... then, in sober reasoning be admitted, that our mere abhorrence of so much destruction is no guidance to our judgment on this point; and that for anything we can see of the plans of Providence, an entanglement of our globe with a comet may take place any day, with consequences incalculably damaging for the meantime, though not conclusively destructive, and perhaps necessary as a step towards an improved system of things—the bringing in of what Ben Jonson calls ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 453 - Volume 18, New Series, September 4, 1852 • Various

... guilt with a seemingly irresistible force literally "home" to them. It was the conviction of the leaders of the Essex bar that no respectable lawyer could appear in their defence without becoming, in some degree, their accomplice. But Webster, after damaging the character of the prosecutor by his stern cross-examination, addressed the jury, not as an advocate bearing down upon them with his arguments and appeals, but rather as a thirteenth juryman, who had cosily introduced himself into their company, ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... for Gilt Frames—Flies may be kept from damaging gilt frames by going over the frames with a soft brush dipped in a pint of water in which three or four onions have been boiled. This is also good ...
— Fowler's Household Helps • A. L. Fowler

... exchanged glances, and then, as by a common impulse, all turned to Col. Warner, to see how he would take this damaging revelation. Disguise it as he might, ...
— Do and Dare - A Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... Press; and what was euphoniously termed 'public opinion' was the opinion of Jost. Should anything by chance happen to get into his own special journal, or into any of the other journals connected with Jost, which Jost did not approve of, or which might be damaging to Jost's social or financial interests, the editor in charge was severely censured; if the fault occurred again he was promptly dismissed. 'Public opinion' had to be formed on Jost's humour; otherwise it was no opinion at all. A few ...
— Temporal Power • Marie Corelli

... terribly damaging night to the Government, and fully justifies all that I, in common with almost everybody else, thought of that miserable appointment of Londonderry.[3] Shiel brought it forward, and a storm burst from every side. Stanley made a strong speech against it, and Mahon totally broke down. Peel ...
— The Greville Memoirs - A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, Vol. III • Charles C. F. Greville

... was herself in the position so desirable for the Cliff Hotel; that, in any case, unless Mrs. Tailleur's conduct became such as to justify an extreme step, the scandal of the ejection would be more damaging to the Cliff Hotel than her present transparently innocent and peaceful occupation of the best room in it. He wished to know how a scandal was to be avoided when the place was swarming with old women. And, after all, what had they got against Mrs. Tailleur except that she was better looking by ...
— The Immortal Moment - The Story of Kitty Tailleur • May Sinclair

... budget, introduced a couple of weeks ago, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer declined, so I am informed, to consider an increase in the income tax rate, because of the damaging effect which such increase would be apt to have on the ...
— War Taxation - Some Comments and Letters • Otto H. Kahn

... kill four or five birds at a time, simply for mischief. A party of boys can, by a day's sport, make a serious difference in the number of birds in a region where they are not plentiful and thus have a large share in damaging the crops. ...
— Checking the Waste - A Study in Conservation • Mary Huston Gregory

... repelling area in a twisting, rocking flight. Not hit as yet; they had to aim carefully to avoid damaging the red craft.... He was straining his eyes for a glimpse of serpent-forms, and he laughed softly under his breath at thought of his strange allies. Laughed!—until he saw ...
— Astounding Stories, May, 1931 • Various

... Ward was in a state of revolt. He was homesick; he was lonely for a friend; he was constantly on the lookout for some trick; his confidence in himself had fled; his opinion of himself had suffered a damaging change; he hardly dared call his soul ...
— The Young Pitcher • Zane Grey

... bitterness and many threats. But Joan remained steadfast, and the questionings had to shift to other matters. Half an hour was spent over Joan's apparitions—their dress, hair, general appearance, and so on—in the hope of fishing something of a damaging sort out of the replies; but with ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... had once decimated the population; the disease had finally been controlled after a Hospital Earth research team had identified the organism that caused it, determined its molecular structure, and synthesized an antibiotic that could destroy it without damaging the body of the host. But now a flareup had occurred. The Lancet brought in supplies of the antibiotic, and Tiger Martin spent two days showing Singallese physicians how to control further outbreaks with modern ...
— Star Surgeon • Alan Nourse

... in his too eager realism was damaging the thing—the marks of his pick and spade are visible on the cranium—Edwin Booth presently replaced it with a papier-mache counterfeit manufactured in the property-room of the theatre. During his subsequent wanderings in Australia and California, he carefully preserved the relic, ...
— Ponkapog Papers • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... it cannot now be helped. Somebody has got wind of our plans; I do not think to any damaging degree, but sufficiently to have me regarded with suspicion. Arden is ...
— Under the Rebel's Reign • Charles Neufeld

... admit that it was possible that a former tubercular condition had recurred. She also forced the unwilling admission that so far as the fracture of the leg was concerned the bones had knit perfectly. The most damaging testimony was that of a neighbor woman, who had overheard Mrs. Bell exclaim to herself on the very day of the poisoning, "I will force him to marry me or ...
— An American Suffragette • Isaac N. Stevens

... crime, and finally to war. The alcohol question well illustrates the tendencies we are pointing out. Science and hygiene have at last shown beyond all question that alcohol, whether in large or smaller doses, exerts a damaging effect upon both mind and body. It lessens physical and mental efficiency, shortens life, and encourages social disorder. In spite of this fact and, what is still more amazing, in spite of the colossal effort now being put forth to suppress by legislative means the traffic ...
— Introduction to the Science of Sociology • Robert E. Park

... not to give the evidence which I was expected to give; because she said she fully believed it to be false—that the pistol I had thought I had seen in Johnny Montgomery's hand must have been a fancy of mine, and that she could not bear to have such damaging testimony given so recklessly. She had thought, so she said, that being a woman she might perhaps know better how to elicit the real facts of the case from me, since the men,—lawyers, police officers ...
— The Other Side of the Door • Lucia Chamberlain

... conception of this quotation it must be noted that laziness is, of course, not to be regarded as the only foundation of incest symbolism.] She is the mother of infinite evils, not the least of them being the neurotic maladies. For especially from the vapor of remaining libido residues, those damaging evils of phantasy develop, which so enshroud reality that adaptation becomes well nigh impossible." (Jung, Psychology of ...
— Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts • Herbert Silberer

... Antiquities and the ephors of the archaeological collections in Athens. Fixed antiquities must be reported by the discoverer to the Ephor General or one of the ephors of antiquities or other official. Damaging of ruins or remains of monuments is forbidden. Owners of the land on which portable antiquities desirable for the National Museums are found are compensated to the extent of half their value. Any person who finds antiquities on his land must ...
— How to Observe in Archaeology • Various

... all he could show was a passport. It was a very unfortunate contretemps, in view of the fact that they shortly afterwards kissed and "made up." It so happened that there were quite a number of witnesses to the flaunting of these damaging documents, and as Trigger Island was then in the first stages of a religious upheaval, it was impossible to overlook this definite instance of iniquity. Despite the recantations of the chagrined couple,—and, it must be added, the surreptitious disappearance of the incriminating papers,—the ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon

... found, told fatally against him. When called upon to address the jury, he delivered himself of a speech rather than a defense; of an oratorical effusion, instead of a vigorous, and, if possible, damaging commentary upon the evidence arrayed against him. It was a labored, and in part eloquent, exposition of the necessary fallibility of human judgment, illustrated by numerous examples of erroneous verdicts. His ...
— The Experiences of a Barrister, and Confessions of an Attorney • Samuel Warren

... you were aware that they went about sayin' things about a third person who also wasn't exactly a friend, but ... well, likeable; and you believed that what the first lot said gave a wrong impression ... in short, was very damaging—none of it any business of yours, mind—would you feel called upon ...
— Jan and Her Job • L. Allen Harker

... the words, as written. It is my belief that those who had the task of translating the Bible from its original tongue and re-copying it through the ages were particularly careful of this chapter because they did not understand it and were afraid of damaging it. ...
— The Four-Faced Visitors of Ezekiel • Arthur W. Orton

... For fifty years the vexed social problem of "strikes" has been discussed, but is not yet solved, giving intense solicitude to capitalists and corporations, and equal hope to operatives. The year 1834, then, showed the commencement of the great war between capital and labor which is so damaging to all business operations, and the ultimate issue of which cannot be predicted with certainty,—but which will probably lead to a great amelioration of the condition of the working-classes and the curtailment of the incomes of rich men, especially those engaged in trade and ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume X • John Lord

... and victories for them. Their army believed this. It produced a morale which could only be overcome by desperate and continuous hard fighting. The battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna and Cold Harbor, bloody and terrible as they were on our side, were even more damaging to the enemy, and so crippled him as to make him wary ever after of taking the offensive. His losses in men were probably not so great, owing to the fact that we were, save in the Wilderness, almost invariably the attacking party; and ...
— Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete • Ulysses S. Grant

... unlawfully and violently damaged the said headquarters and offices of the said woman's organization by pelting rotten eggs through the doors and windows, shooting a bullet from a revolver through a window, and otherwise damaging said Cameron House, and also violently and unlawfully did strike, choke, drag and generally mistreat and injure and abuse the said women when they came defenseless upon the streets adjoining as well as when they were in ...
— Jailed for Freedom • Doris Stevens

... pronounced by the judge to whom it was submitted,—in competition with a rival production by a young gentleman from Oxford,—to be an excellent story, and extremely well written, although with this commendation was coupled the somewhat damaging inquiry,—"But where's the Generosity?" The question cannot be answered now, as the manuscript has not been preserved, though the inconvenient query, we are told, became a kind of personal proverb with the young author, who was wont to add that this first effort contained ...
— De Libris: Prose and Verse • Austin Dobson

... said she, "you have made some very damaging statements, before witnesses, about Miss McCartney's ...
— From a Bench in Our Square • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... with a useful example. One member of the mischief-making brotherhood wrote the words 'gone bung' under a notice on the Government Savings Bank, and he was brought before the Police Court charged with damaging the bank's property to the extent of 3d. The offender offered the Bench his views on the bank, but the magistrates bluntly told him his conduct was disgraceful, and fined him L 3 with costs, or ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris

... quite true that [Symbol: Aleph]BD with five other Uncial MSS. and Nonnus, besides the Latin and Bohairic, Jerusalem, Armenian, and Ethiopic versions, besides four errant cursives so exhibit the place, this instead of commending the reading to our favour, only proves damaging to the witnesses by which it is upheld. We learn that no reliance is to be placed even in such a combination of authorities. This is one of the places which the Fathers pass by almost in silence. Chrysostom[405] however, ...
— The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels • John Burgon

... "Lohengrin" at Weimar does not as yet seem to have been adequate, in so far as the purely musical part was much more perfect than the dramatic, properly so called, and the fault I attribute solely to the general state of our opera, which from the outset has the most confusing and damaging influence on all our singers. If during the performance of my "Lohengrin" the music only was noticed, yea almost only the orchestra, you may be sure that the actors remained far behind their task. Yesterday I ...
— Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1 • Francis Hueffer (translator)

... always a cheering influence about the sea; and in my berth that night, rocked by the measured swell of the waves and lulled by the murmur of the distant surf, I soon passed tranquilly out of all consciousness of the dreary experiences of the day and damaging premonitions ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... To offset this damaging attack on Smith, a man named Markham was induced to make an affidavit assailing Miss Rigdon's character, which was published in the Wasp. But Markham's own character was so bad, and the charge caused so much indignation, that the editor was induced to ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn

... delight at being rid of him, that, on Hadrian's account, he must give up that idea. Nothing was now to be done, but to procure the removal of Pollux from Alexandria, or to render him in some way incapable of damaging him, and this he might perhaps be able to do by the instrumentality ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... philosophy. Thus, although our privileges were at stake, and the remnants of our former supremacy were undermined under our feet, this little warfare gratified us. Inexperienced in the attack, we simply admired the spectacle. Combats with the pen and with words did not appear to us capable of damaging our existing superiority, which several centuries of possession had made us regard as impregnable. The forms of the edifice remaining intact, we could not see how it could be mined from within. We laughed at the serious alarm of the old court ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 1 (of 6) - The Ancient Regime • Hippolyte A. Taine

... was the grave answer, in a tone not disconcerted, but full of repression, and with a pale but steady countenance. 'Gloss it over as you will, a correspondence such as you have begun is unjustifiable. It risks damaging for ever the prospects, at once not only of—of the object—but those ...
— The Pillars of the House, V1 • Charlotte M. Yonge

... that Bishop Proudie is altogether in his hands, and it is equally clear that he has been moving heaven and earth to get this Mr Quiverful into the hospital, although he must know that such an appointment would be most damaging to the bishop. It is impossible to understand such a man, and dreadful to think,' added Mr Staple, sighing deeply, 'that the welfare and fortunes of good men may ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope

... Vitellius, he had endeavoured to set up an independent authority of his own in Spain, and to this end had issued passports with no emperor's name at the head.[368] Certain phrases in his speeches were also construed as damaging to Vitellius and as a bid for his own popularity. However, Cluvius' influence carried the day, and Vitellius even had his own freedman punished. Cluvius was given a place at court, while still retaining Spain, of which he was absentee governor, ...
— Tacitus: The Histories, Volumes I and II • Caius Cornelius Tacitus

... that the Christians in Paris were not armed, but they all got safely away to Montalbano. During the siege, the Pope directed the defence, and the people, following his commands, threw their furniture over the walls with the intention of damaging the enemy; but the Turkish Emperors had made a study of the art of war and taught their men how to hold their shields over their heads, and thus they warded off the chairs and tables and were able to creep along under cover, approach the city, ...
— Castellinaria - and Other Sicilian Diversions • Henry Festing Jones

... the cipher in a way that recalls the paper-covered detective story. The newspaper aroused and excited public interest by publishing specimens and eventually achieved a sensation by putting the most damaging material into print on October 16, 1878. One of the telegrams, with its translation, ran ...
— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley

... Rather damaging evidence, that costume. I suppose it’s the custom of the country for gentlemen in evening clothes to go out by the window and return by the door. You might think ...
— The House of a Thousand Candles • Meredith Nicholson

... Knew not the secret of having his own way Long stick and began to make notches in it for the people he saw Making religion their color Peculiarly subject to such coincidences Prince's mind imprisoned in a poor man's purse Progressive memory Somewhat damaging to an estimate of his originality Thames had no bridges Those that did not work should not eat Tobacco-selling Wanted advancement but were unwilling to adventure their ease Would if he could Writ too much, ...
— Quotes and Images From The Works of Charles Dudley Warner • Charles Dudley Warner



Words linked to "Damaging" :   destructive, prejudicious, negative, detrimental, prejudicial, harmful



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