darn
part of speech
verb (darn, darns, darned, darning); interjection (darn!); adjective/adverb (darn, darned — mild)
meaning for a pupil
1) To darn a sock or jumper is to mend a hole by sewing threads across it. tree →
2) (mild swearing) «Darn!» or «Darn it!» is said when you are annoyed, instead of a stronger word. tree →
3) (informal) Darn or darned means very, or annoying: a darn good idea, that darn cat. tree →
sense in the lessons
In real speech, especially in North America, «darn» is a polite replacement for ruder words; it is mild and often heard in children's films. In history and everyday life people darned socks instead of buying new ones. In stories it shows a character is cross but polite.
examples
- Grandma darned the hole in my sock. tree →
- (mild) Darn it, I forgot my lunch! tree →
- (mild) That darn cat knocked over the plant again. tree →
- (informal) It was a darn good match. tree →
- She sat by the fire darning a jumper. tree →
- (mild) Darn, the bus has gone! tree →
note
Regular verb: darned, darning. The interjection is a softened swear word (a «minced oath»), fine for most children but not for formal writing. «Darned» (adjective) means the same as the mild «darn».
In the corpora
- "Gosh darn it" is an American polite form of the curse "God damn it".
- "Darn" is a mild word used instead of the swear word "damn".
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «darn» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.