damper

plural dampers

1. Something that damps or checks:
   1. countableuncountableA valve or movable plate in the flue or other part of a stove, furnace, etc., used to check or regulate the draught of air.
   2. countableuncountableA contrivance (sordine), as in a pianoforte, to deaden vibrations; or, as in other pieces of mechanism, to check some action at a particular time.
   3. countableuncountableSomething that kills the mood.

      Nor did Sabrina′s presence seem to act as any damper at the modest little festivities.

      1887, William Black, Sabina Zembra

   4. countableuncountableA device that decreases the oscillations of a system.

      Figure 7.13 shows stability diagrams that illustrate the effect of the magnitude of the damping coefficient of the damper on the flutter of the pipe.

      2019, Yoshihiko Sugiyama, Mikael A. Langthjem, Kazuo Katayama, Dynamic Stability of Columns Under Nonconservative Forces, page 97

   5. countableuncountableengineeringA shock absorber.

      However, complaints quickly surfaced about the ride quality of the SIG BT41 bogies, which was only cured by the fitting of additional dampers to the bogies and couplers.

      2022 September 21, Ben Jones, “IC225s: the Electras go gliding on”, in RAIL, number 966, page 40

      1 more example

      In general, steel springs were stipulated for primary suspension, although rubber was accepted for auxiliary springing; hydraulic dampers were specified and the use of laminated springs ruled out.

      1960 December, “The first hundred 25 kV a.c. electric locomotives for B.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 726

2. AustraliaNew ZealandcountableuncountableBread made from a basic recipe of flour, water, milk, and salt, but without yeast.

   1827, Peter Cunningham, Two Years in New South Wales, ii.190, quoted in G. A. Wilkes, A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms, 1978, →ISBN, The farm-men usually bake their flour into flat cakes, which they call dampers, and cook these in the ashes.

   2 more examples

   The flour bespattering Squeaker's now neglected clothes spoke eloquently of his clumsy efforts at damper making.

   1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 15

   You hypocritically claim that you are trying to ‘protect’ us; but your modern policy of ‘protection’ (so-called) is killing us off just as surely as the pioneer policy of giving us poisoned damper and shooting us down like dingoes!

   1938, William Ferguson, John Patten, “Aborigines Claim Citizen Rights!”, in Anita Heiss, Peter Minter, editors, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin, published 2008, page 31

3. UKcountableobsoleteslanguncountableA shop till.

   A certain class of 'City Arabs' do nothing but steal provisions from shop doors and sell them for one-tenth of their value, or less, […] while a fourth again do nothing but "draw the dampers," i. e. steal from shop-tills.

   1853, Joseph Kay, The Condition and Education of Poor Children in English and in German Towns, page 20

1. comparativecomparative form of damp: more damp