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- put a damper on
put a damper on
put a damper on something
Fig. to have a dulling or numbing influence on something. The bad news really put a damper on everything. The rainy weather put a damper on our picnic.
put a damper on something
to make something less enjoyable The terrible weather put a damper on this year's New Year celebrations.
Etymology: a damper is a device that reduces the loudness of sound, esp. on a piano, or controls the temperature of a fire
put a damper/dampener on something
to stop an occasion from being enjoyable
Usage notes: A damper is a device used on piano strings to make the sound less loud.
Steve lost his wallet so that rather put a damper on the evening. We were both ill while we were in Boston, which put a bit of a dampener on things. put a damper on
Discourage, dishearten, deter, as in Grandpa's death put a damper on our Christmas holidays. This idiom employs the noun damper in the sense of "something that damps or depresses the spirits," a usage dating from the mid-1700s.
Common Names:
Name | Gender | Pronounced | Usage |
Penko | | - | Bulgarian |
Shireen | | - | Persian |
Tosia | | TAW-shah | Polish |
Ute | | OO-tə | German |
Mathilde | | ma-TEELD (French), mah:-TIL-də (Dutch) | French, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish |
Sabine | | ['seibain] | |