accursed

adjective

variants or accurst
1
: being under or as if under a curse
an accursed people
2
accursedly adverb
accursedness noun

Examples of accursed in a Sentence

the video store is charging another accursed late fee
Recent Examples on the Web Must be able to play an accursed whalebone lyre while consuming five sticks of unsalted butter. Keaton Patti, The New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2019 The others have tried to forget all about it, and have managed to put some distance between themselves and their accursed hometown. New York Times, 3 Sep. 2019 Then from each black, accursed mouth The cannon thundered in the South, And with the sound The carols drowned Of peace on Earth, goodwill to men! Anchorage Daily News, 23 Dec. 2017 Earlier this year the accursed Queen Elizabeth of England imposed Protestantism on her wretched subjects, who are now deprived of the consolation of the sacraments. Erik Spanberg, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Sep. 2017 And the Republican establishment, which loathes him, eggs them on, hoping to be rid of their mad, accursed priest. John Kass, Twin Cities, 1 June 2017

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'accursed.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English acursed, from past participle of acursen "to consign to destruction with a curse," going back to Old English acursian, from a-, perfective prefix + cursian "to curse entry 2" — more at abide

Note: The verb acursian is attested once in late Old English (glosses to the Salisbury Psalter, added in 1100 or sometime thereafter). The prefix a- may rather be a reduced form of on- than the old perfective prefix. In the 16th century spellings with initial acc- intrude, as if the word were a Romance or Latin formation with the prefix ad-.

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of accursed was in the 13th century

Dictionary Entries Near accursed

Cite this Entry

“Accursed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accursed. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

accursed

adjective
variants or accurst
1
: being under a curse
2
accursedly adverb
accursedness noun

More from Merriam-Webster on accursed

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!