Meanings
present singular third person imprecates · participle present imprecating · participle past imprecated · past imprecated
- transitiveTo call down by prayer, as something hurtful or calamitous.
To sailors, oaths are household words; they will swear in the trance of the calm, and in the teeth of the tempest; they will imprecate curses from the topsail-yard-arms, when most they teeter over to a seething sea; [...]
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 119”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
Synonyms & antonyms
verbwish harm upon; invoke evil upon
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinimprecātus
- Englishimprecate
Borrowed from Latin imprecātus, perfect active participle of imprecor (“to invoke (good or evil) upon, pray to, call upon”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from in- (“upon”) + precor (“to pray”).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian проклинам, пожелавам зло
- проклинам (proklinam)to call down by prayer
- пожелавам зло (poželavam zlo)to invoke evil upon
Finnish manata, kirota
- manatato call down by prayer
- kirotato call down by prayer
- manatato invoke evil upon
- kirotato invoke evil upon
Latin imprecor, exsecror
- imprecorto invoke evil upon
- exsecrorto invoke evil upon
Polish złorzeczyć, przekląć
- złorzeczyćto call down by prayer
- przekląćto call down by prayer
- przeklinaćto invoke evil upon
- przekląćto invoke evil upon
Russian проклина́ть, проклина́ть
- проклина́ть (proklinátʹ)to call down by prayer
- проклина́ть (proklinátʹ)to invoke evil upon
Spanish imprecar, imprecar
- imprecarto call down by prayer
- imprecarto invoke evil upon
Cite this entry
imprecate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/imprecate
“imprecate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/imprecate. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “imprecate,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/imprecate.
Source: imprecate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.