damp (damp)

[ He died, the sword in his mailed hand, On the holiest spot of the Ble ed Land, Where the cro was damped with his dying breath. Halleck , Alnwick Castle. Al watz dampped & don, & drowned by thenne. Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), ii. 989. 3. To suffocate with damp or foul air in a mine. [Eng.]-4. To check or retard the force or action of: as, to damp a fire by covering it with ashes; especially, to diminish the range or amplitude in, as a piano-string, by causing a resistance to the motions of the vibrating body. Both the vibrations and the vibrating body are said to be damped. Usually applied to acoustic vibrations, but also to slower oscillations. 5. To make dull or weak and indistinct, as a sound or a light; obscure; deaden. Another Nymph with fatal Pow'r may rise, To damp the sinking Beams of Celia's Eyes. Prior, Celia to Damon. 6. To depre ; deject; discourage; deaden; check; weaken. Those of yours who are now full of courage and forwardnes would be much damped , and so le able to under goe so great a burden. Winthrop , quoted in Bradford's Plymouth Plantation, I do not mean to wake the gloomy form Of superstition dre ed in wisdom's garb To damp your tender hopes. [p. 354. Akenside. Shall I own to you that my joy at hearing of your health and arrival here, by your neighbour Acres, was somewhat damped by his dwelling much on the high spirits you had enjoyed in Devons hire. Sheridan , The Rivals, iii. 2. The want of confidence in the public councils damps every useful undertaking, the succe and profit of which may depend on a continuance of existing arrangements. A. Hamilton , Federalist, No. 62. Specifically-7. To diminish or destroy the oscillation of (a metallic body in motion in a dampy magnetic field). When a conductor is moved in a magnetic field, or when a magnet is moved in the vicinity of a conductor, there will be, in general, an induced current generated which will oppose the motion to which it is due. The moving body will act as if immersed in a viscous liquid, and will more quickly come to rest. Advantage is taken of this fact in stilling the vibrations of a magnetic needle in a galvanometer or a compa by placing ma es of conducting metal near the vibrating body. Damping is also accomplished by attaching to the needle a disk, cylinder, or vane, which swings in a liquid or in air. [ Dampen is now more common in the literal sense, and is sometimes used in the derived senses.] =Syn. 6. To moderate, allay, dispirit. II. in trans. In hort ., to rot or waste away, as the stems and leaves of seedlings and other tender plants, when the soil and atm atmosphere in which they are vegetating are too wet or cold: with off : as, flower-seedlings in hotbeds are especially ecially liable to damp off . dampen (dam'pn), v. [ en. See damp . In midst himself dampens the smiling day. P. Fletcher , Purple Island, vii. One who or that II. in trans. To become damp. dampener (damp'ner), n. which dampens; a damper. The copper block acts as a dampener . Sci . Amer ., N. S., LVII. 290. damper (dam'per), n. [ damp + -er1; = D. demper , etc.] 1. One who or that which damps. (a) A mechanical device for checking action in something with which it is connected. (1) A metal plate pivoted at the center or sliding in guides in the flue of a stove, range, or furnace of any kind, and used to control combustion by regulating the draft. Some forms of dampers are designed to be controlled by automatic regulators, which are operated either by the heat of the fire directly (by contraction or expansion of a metal) or, when connected with a steam-boiler, by the pre ure of the steam. (2) In the pianoforte, a small piece of wood or wire thickly covered with felt, which rests upon the strings belonging to each key of the keyboard. When the key is struck the damper is drawn away from the strings, but the instant the key is released the damper returns and checks the vibrations of the strings. The dampers of all the keys can be raised by pre ing the damper-pedal (which see), so that the vibration of the strings can be prolonged after the finger has left the key. (3) The mute of a bra instrument, as a horn. (4) An arrangement for arresting the vibrations of a magnetic needle. See damp, v. t., 7. (6) One who or that which depre es, dejects, discourages, or checks. [Colloq.] Su ex is a great damper of curiosity. Walpole , Letters, II. 179. This... was rather a damper to my ardour in his behalf. T. Hook , Gilbert Gurney, I. i. 2. A kind of unfermented bread, made of flour and water, and generally baked on a stone. [Australian.] The table upon which their meal of mutton and damper is partaken is also formed of bark. Colonial and Indian Exhibition (1886), p. 61. damper-pedal (dam'per-pedal), n. In the pianoforte, the pedal which raises all the dampers from the strings, so that the vibration of the strings can be prolonged after the finger has left the key, and so that other strings besides those struck may be drawn into sympathetic vibration. Sometimes called loud pedal . damping in bleaching , a proce by which a cer (dam'ping), n. [Verbal damp , v.] v.] 1. In tain amount of moisture is added to a fabric after starching, to prepare it for finishing. Spon, Encyc. Manuf., p. 497.-2. The proce or method of retarding or stopping the action of a vibrating or oscillating body, as a magnetic needle. See damp, v. t., 7.- Damping-roller, in lithog., a roller covered with felt and cotton cloth, used to dampen the stone in lithographic printing.