ppl. a. Forms: 2–5 acursed(e, acorsed; 3 akursid, akursede; 4 acursid; 5–6 accursed, accurst. [f. acurse, later ACCURSE v. + -ED.]

1

  1.  Lying under a curse or anathema; anathematized; doomed to perdition or misery.

2

c. 1220.  S. Marherete, 10. Þu ouercume … þene acursede gast.

3

c. 1230.  Ancren Riwle, 234. Efter þreottene ȝer com þe akursede gost þet hefde hire itented.

4

1388.  Wyclif, Gal. i. 8. Be he acursid [1526 Tindale Holde him as a cursed. 1611 Let him be accursed.]

5

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 97. And calde hem ‘caytifs a-corsed’: for þis was a vil vilanye.

6

c. 1450.  Lonelich, Grail, xxix. 453. Therfore acursed schalt thou be Thorwhowt alle the erthe ful sikerle, And the erthe, a-corsed I wel it be do.

7

1588.  Shaks., Tit. A., V. iii. 5. Take you in this barbarous Moore, This Rauenous Tiger, this accursed deuill. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., III. iii. 52. Most accurst am I To be by oath enioyn’d to this.

8

1611.  Bible, Joshua xxii. 20. Did not Achan the sonne of Zerah commit a trespasse in the accursed thing?

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1718.  Pope, Iliad, VI. 174. A wretch accurst and hated by the gods!

10

1829.  Hood, Eug. Aram, xxviii. [I] sought the black accursed pool With a wild misgiving eye.

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1855.  Tennyson, The Letters, 36. Thro’ you, my life will be accurst.

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  2.  Worthy of the curse, or bringing a curse along with it; execrable, damnable; detestable, hateful.

13

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., V. iv. 71. The priuate wound is deepest: oh time, most accurst: ’Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst.

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1713.  Steele, Englishm., No. 48, 308. That accursed Quality … or Disorder of the Mind, called Ambition.

15

1858.  O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., xii. 119. I never saw the accursed trick performed.

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1863.  Kemble, Resid. in Georgia, 97. This accursed system of slavery.

17

1887.  P. Bevan, Songs, War for the Union, 83.

        Or race commingled and accursed, of man and demon joined,
From lust and vile embraces burst, had here to sink confined.

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  3.  absol. quasi-sb.

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1611.  Bible, Joshua vii. 12. Neither will I bee with you any more, except yee destroy the accursed from amongst you.

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1814.  Southey, Roderick, XII. (1853), IX. 113. Swear that thy soul Will make no covenant with these accursed.

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