Crossword clues for imprecate
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Imprecate \Im"pre*cate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Imprecated; p. pr. & vb. n. Imprecating.] [L. imprecatus, p. p. of imprecari to imprecate; pref. im- in, on + precari to pray. See Pray.]
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To call down by prayer, as something hurtful or calamitous.
Imprecate the vengeance of Heaven on the guilty empire.
--Mickle. -
To invoke evil upon; to curse; to swear at.
In vain we blast the ministers of Fate, And the forlorn physicians imprecate.
--Rochester.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1610s, probably a back-formation from imprecation. Related: Imprecated; imprecating; imprecatory (1580s).
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context transitive English) To call down by prayer, as something hurtful or calamitous. 2 (context transitive English) To invoke evil upon; to curse; to swear at.
WordNet
Usage examples of "imprecate".
He then imprecated the most heavy curses on himself, if he had not seen the volunteer, all over blood, vomiting fire out of his mouth and nostrils, pass by him into the chamber where Ensign Northerton was, and then seizing the ensign by the throat, fly away with him in a clap of thunder.
When he saw that it contained nought but coals, he did not suspect Guccio Balena of playing the trick, for he knew that he was not clever enough, nor did he curse him, that his carelessness had allowed another to play it, but he inly imprecated himself, that he had committed his things to the keeping of one whom he knew to be "negligent and disobedient, reckless and witless.
But, before they would receive this mark of friendship, they pulled off their moccasins: a custom, as we afterward learned, which indicates the sacred sincerity of their professions when they smoke with a stranger, and which imprecates on themselves the misery of going barefoot forever if they prove faithless to their words--a penalty by no means light for those who rove over the thorny plains of this country.
Their captain had spent the battle huddled alongside Hunnar, jabbing occasionally with his sword while expending most of his energy in imprecating his ancestors for getting him into this trouble.
Any time thereafter that the mule balked, Valentine just brandished his leafy shillelagh, imprecating against it in the glottal nonsense that worked on the recalcitrant beast.