tarnation

plural tarnations

1. archaiccountableregionaluncountableThe act or process of damnation or reprobation; hell.

   What in tarnation is going on?

   4 more examples

   I am Offul maazed. Wheer in tarnations es that theer plaguy girl?

   1901, Alien, Another Woman's Territory, page 311

   Them city fellers liked to died when they see me come in the office ! I says to 'em: "Had a tarnation of a time finding this place.

   1965, Benjamin Albert Botkin, A treasury of New England folklore: stories, ballads, and traditions

   "Now who in tarnation is Uncle Jobe?" asked Pa.

   1989, Patrick D. Smith, The River is Home ; And, Angel City, →ISBN, page 45

   Then where in tarnation is it?

   1999, John O'Connor, The Hound of the Baskervilles, →ISBN, page 13

2. countableobsoleteuncountableSomeone or something that causes trouble; troublemaker.

   I would say more, but RADLEY's come up to tell me I must go and meet that tarnation BANCROFT.

   1848, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Mark Lemon, Punch - Volumes 12-15, page 162

   2 more examples

   I felt sort of odd all over, and I hadn't the least notion what could ail me; it warn't a very tedious feeling, though, but it seemed as if I was a dreaming yit, and all about that tarnation little Miss Miles.

   1854, Ann Sophia Stephens, High Life in New York, page 70

   The year before that the young tarnations got up into the tower one night and hooked a rope onto the bell and stretched it across the campus into Professor Robert's barn.

   1928 September, F. Ray Ritchie, “The Worm Turns”, in Boys' Life, volume 18, number 9, page 39

1. archaicUsed to express anger, irritation, disappointment, annoyance, contempt, etc.

   "Tarnation! You all right?" "Hell, no, I ain't all right!"

   2002, T. T. Flynn, Prodigal of Death: A Western Quintet, →ISBN, page 41

   3 more examples

   “They contain the precise description of the place where the nuggets are hidden.” “Tarnation! Is that true?"

   2008, Marlies Bugmann, Karl May, Winnetou III, page 338

   “Tarnation,” Jasper murmured, his attention turning to the thing in the Aether bubble.

   2013, Kady Cross, The Girl With The Iron Touch, →ISBN

   “Oh, what in the Sam Hill are you a-wearing? I thought I was supposed to be Twain.” “I say you are incorrect, sir. I believe we decided I would be Twain.” “Twin Twains? That dog won't hunt.” “Uh, Mr. Clemens?” “Mmhmm. That's me.” “No, I'm Twain. Switch costumes, you ignominious pretender.” “You're more stubborn than a senate mule.” “Grits, grits, grits!” “Tarnation!” “Fancy pants, big-city lawyer.” “I say you are incorrect, sir.”

   2023 September 21, Grace Parra Janney, “Something Borrowed, Something Green” (9:35 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 4, episode 4, spoken by Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero)

comparative more tarnation · superlative most tarnation

1. Bothersome; devilish.

   It started over nothing, and would have come to nothing but for that tarnation liquor.

   1894, Macmillan's Magazine - Volume 70, page 343

   2 more examples

   Now you go 'long back to the house, Marm Winthrop, and if riding 'longside of a popish priest don't speerit me into the bottomless pit, I'll be blamed if I don't go some day into his church and find out what all that tarnation lingo means.

   1876, The Catholic Record - Volume 11, page 78

   Hello stranger, this is a fine fix you got into, getting a tarnation fever out in the Rockies, but my wife is the best hand at sick folks you ever see.

   1921, Gilbert Guest, A Bridal Trip in a Prairie Schooner, page 128

2. Generic intensifier.

   My love the strongest, a tarnation sight.

   1838, The Old American Comic Almanac

   2 more examples

   Some time in the month o' August, I think it wur, I found myself in London wi'out a tarnation cent.

   1803, The Castle of the Pyrenees; Or, the Wanderer of the Alps.

   I allow now, if I had asked you to loan me a handful of dollars, you might have looked as glum as a beaver in a trap ; but there's a tarnation difference between that and a civil question on the road.

   1861, William Edmondstoune Aytoun, Norman Sinclair, page 213

comparative more tarnation · superlative most tarnation

1. Very; extremely.

   Well, that's tarnation strange !

   1883 -, John Thomas Dicks, Dicks' standard plays, page 48

   4 more examples

   ‘Well, one Sunday morning, I took ‘Brown Betsy,’ my old two shooter, and all the dogs, and off I sot for the cane brake in the hollow, over back of Ike Hamberlin’s, the steam doctor’ — for I know’d Ike would be tarnation riley if I kilt a bar any where close to his clearin, and that made me sorter ambitious like.’

   1849 November 10, The Spirit of the Times, New York, page 542, column 3

   He was so tarnation black you couldn't see him except in the middle of the day.

   1855, John Diprose, Diprose's New Sixpenny Comic Song-Book, page 57

   Since Britannia ruled the waves, I guess it's a tarnation queer thing that she didn't rule 'em straighter.

   1867, John Cordy Jeaffreson, A Book about Lawyers - Volume 2, page 242

   I know it is lonesome for you, but I will be with you again in time and then we can and will have a "tarnation good time."

   2009, Dennis M. Larsen -, Slick as a Mitten: Ezra Meeker's Klondike Enterprise, page 29