Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective & adverb Damned.
from The Century Dictionary.
- An epithet of reprobation: used as a piece of mild profanity.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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"Who holds the key to that tarnal hole, anyway, Tad?"
Buffalo Roost F. H. Cheley
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You're so tarnal lazy, you think dinner time is early.
Buffalo Roost F. H. Cheley
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'Pears to me it's tarnal long abeout it; it ollers acts contrairy when mother's in a hurry for her tea!'
Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No 3, September 1863 Devoted to Literature and National Policy Various
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Does dirty work fer any tarnal critter at'll pay him well fer it.
Buffalo Roost F. H. Cheley
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He's talked about ye every tarnal day since he first seen ye, an 'they ain't been nothin' in his mind since, except yer welfare.
Buffalo Roost F. H. Cheley
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"I don't feel good in the tarnal stuff things, nohow."
Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi George H. Devol
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"Boys, I'm drinking, and I don't care, fur my spunk's up, and I'd just's soon bet her all the first bet; them tarnal fellers guzzled me out of $1,000 in Cincinnater, and I wants ter get even."
Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi George H. Devol
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'Twas 'cause it took him so 'tarnal long to dig a basket, that the pertaters grew ahead of him in the row -- that's right!
Janice Day at Poketown Helen Beecher Long
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"You wouldn't feel it so, if ye hadn't been too 'tarnal lazy to change yer seat," sniffed his wife.
Janice Day at Poketown Helen Beecher Long
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"Guess that memorial service must be all over, from the racket they're makin 'with them tarnal carts," he said.
Buffalo Roost F. H. Cheley
bilby commented on the word tarnal
Minced oath for eternal God!
May 18, 2022