Forms: 1 cursian, 2–3 cursen, (3–4 kurse, 4 curce), 4–5 cors, (5 cruss), 5–6 cursse, 4– curse. [Goes with CURSE sb., from which, in its OE. form curs, the vb. cursian was probably immediately derived.]
Generally the opposite of to bless in its various uses.
1. trans. To utter against (persons or things) words that consign, or are intended or supposed to consign, them to evil spiritual or temporal, as the wrath of God or the malignity of fate; to damn. a. Said of the deity or supernatural power.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 11. Cursed be þe man þe leueð upen hwate. Ibid., 181. Þo godes muð cursede eorðe.
1426. Audelay, Poems, 2. Murthyr, theft, and avoutre … bene cursyd in heven on hye.
1611. Bible, Numb. xxiii. 8. How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed?
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. xi. May the Father who created man, curse him…. May St. Michael the advocate of holy souls, curse him.
1821. Byron, Cain, I. i. 522. O Cain! This spirit [Lucifer] curseth us.
b. Said of persons claiming to speak in the divine name, esp. officers of the church: To pronounce a formal curse against, to anathematize, excommunicate, consign to perdition.
a. 1154. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 1137 § 4. Þe biscopes & lered men heom cursede æure. Ibid., an. 1140. Þe biscop of Wincestre … cursede alle þe men.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17109 (Gött.). Curced in kirc þan sal þai be wid candil, boke, and bell.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 309. [The pope Anastasius] cursede þe emperour.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), ix. 36. Machomete cursez all þase þat drinkez wyne.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 111. Cursyn’, excommunico, anathematizo, cateziso.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 119. This yere the men of Caithnes in Scotland burned their bishop, because he curssed them for not paiyng of their Tithes.
1611. Bible, Numb. xxii. 6. Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse mee this people, for they are too mightie for me.
1782. Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., I. I. 7. The Jews … cursed them in a solemn manner three times.
1849. Whittier, Voices of freedom, Curse of Charter-breakers, ix. Since that stoled and mitred band Cursed the tyrants of their land.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 79. Those who alienate either house or lot, shall be cursed by priests.
2. Hence (without implication of the effect): To imprecate or invoke divine vengeance or evil fate upon; to denounce with adjuration of the divine name; to pour maledictions upon; to swear at.
c. 1200. Ormin, 5050. Ȝiff þat tu currsesst aniȝ mann & hatesst himm wiþþ herrte.
c. 1300. St. Brandan, 550. Ich mai cursi the tyme that ich ibore was.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1583. He corsed his clerkes & calde hem chorles.
c. 1475. Partenay, 2851. Full often crussing the hour and the day That thes wordes scapid or mouthed he.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Jan., 49. A thousand sithes I curse that carefull hower.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 52. The citizens … cursing the tyrant to the deuill.
1715. De Foe, Fam. Instruct., I. v. (1841), I. 109. I heard my brother damn the coachman, and curse the maids.
1859. Tennyson, Guinevere, 529. I did not come to curse thee, Guinevere.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 163. Voltaire … never knew more German than was needed to curse a postilion.
† b. with obj. clause. Obs. rare.
c. 1500. Maid Emlyn, in Anc. Poet. Tracts, 27. He cursed that he came thyder.
1638. Ford, Fancies, III. iii. The time will come … When he … Will curse he train’d me hither.
c. In imprecations (with no subject expressed): DAMN, CONFOUND).
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. x. Curse the fellow … I am undone for this bout.
1877. H. Smart, Play or Pay, iv. (1878), 71. ‘Curse the whist!’ he muttered; ‘what a fool I was to meddle with it!’
1881. Scribn. Mag., XXI. 269/2. ‘Curse it! why do you treat me so, as if I were a dog?’
3. To speak impiously against, to rail profanely at (the deity, fate, destiny, etc.); to blaspheme.
c. 1050. Spelman’s Psalms xxxvi[i]. 22 (C. MS.). Forðam þe bletsiende him yrfweardiað eorðan, yfelcweþende [C. cursiynde] soðlice hine forweorðað.
1388. Wyclif, Job ii. 9. His wijf seide to hym … Curse thou God, and die.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 37. He … cursed heven; and spake reprochful shame Of highest God.
1611. Bible, Isa. viii. 21. They shall fret themselues, and curse their King, and their God.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 774. The Clown, who, cursing Providence, repines.
1732. Pope, Ep. Bathurst, 402. And sad Sir Balaam curses God and dies.
4. absol. or intr. To utter curses; to swear profanely in anger or irritation.
c. 1230. Ancr. R., 198. Þe þet swereð greate oðes, oðer bitterliche kurseð.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1977. He … gan to kurse fast; ‘Where dwelle ȝe, a deuel wai, ȝe damiseles, so long?’
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 1169. It es mare manhede … to … beseke god þair bote to bene, Þan outhir for to curse or scorne.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. liii. [lii.] 190. When they saw theyr goodes taken and spente away … they cursed bytwene theyr tethe, sayenge, go into Englande or to the deuyll.
1535. Coverdale, Matt. xxvi. 74. Then beganne he to curse and to sweare.
1667. Dryden, Wild Gallant, IV. i. I drink not, I curse not, I cheat not; they are unnecessary vices.
1819. Shelley, Cenci, III. i. 314. He … came to upbraid and curse, Mocking our poverty.
1892. D. C. Murray, Bob Martin’s Lit. Girl, I. 13. Coming into collision with some unseen piece of furniture, [he] cursed quietly to himself.
5. trans. To afflict with such evils or calamities as are the consequences or indications of divine wrath or the malignancy of fate; to blast. To be cursed with: to be afflicted with by divine decree, by destiny, or by one’s evil fate.
1382. Wyclif, Deut. xxviii. 16, 17. Cursid thow shalt be in citee, cursed in feeld; cursid thy bern, and cursid thi relikis.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 945. The Destinies will curse thee for this stroke.
1611. Bible, Gen. xii. 3. I will blesse them that blesse thee, and curse him, that curseth thee.
1727–38. Gay, Fables, I. viii. 13. With this plague she’s rightly curst.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 182. To … curse the desert with a tenfold dearth.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, IV. xiv. Sure some fell fiend has cursed our line, That coward should e’er be son of mine!
1880. J. Cook, Boston Lectures, Heredity, x. He was temporarily a drunkard, and God cursed him, through that law of initial heredity.
Mod. To be cursed with a bad temper, a drunken wife, etc.
