Imprecation

The excommunication was interpreted as an "imprecation" that cursed all Freemasons and doomed them to perdition. ❋ 1840-1916 (1913)

The Poems of the mourner himself have now passed through innumerable editions, and are universally known, but if, when Collins died, the same kind of imprecation had been pronounced by a surviving admirer, small is the number whom it would not have comprehended. ❋ Edmund Spenser (1730)

“If no other man has slept with you and if you have not gone astray in defilement while married to your husband, may you be safe from harm from this water of bitterness… But if you have gone astray… may the LORD make you a curse and an imprecation among your people, with the LORD causing your thigh to sag and your belly to be distended.” ❋ James L. Kugel (2011)

Once, with a muttered imprecation, Kama leaped away, a stick of firewood in hand, and clubbed apart a tangle of fighting dogs. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Finally, his closing remarks were deadly: An overly flowery imprecation to courage that, ironically, made him sound utterly impotent: ❋ Unknown (2010)

Then, as she jerked at it and muttered another imprecation, the skirt came free and quickly dropped to cover most of what had interested him. ❋ KAREN ROBARDS (2010)

But of course, "liberal" isn't imprecation enough for his outrage: the Democrats are "committed," rather, "to a secular-socialist ideology that is alien to America's history and traditions." ❋ Unknown (2010)

He consigned all boy scouts to limbo with one muttered imprecation. ❋ Ginny Woods (2010)

Apparently if a curse was spoken audibly (compare Lev 5: 1, “audible curse”; NRSV, “public adjuration”), it constituted a conditional rather than an absolute imprecation: it allowed the guilty party to come forth and make restitution (in the case of theft). ❋ Unknown (2009)

Although this is a tangent, it's worth mentioning (at least to me) that as a member of the Joint Congressional Committee on the Inauguration, Diane Feinstein would have known about the disgusting plans to have Rick Warren deliver the imprecation, as did Nancy Pelosi plus Harry Reid and Bob Bennett (both of whom are Mormon). ❋ Unknown (2009)

In English law such an imprecation would cause any subsequent ‘confession’ rightly to be ruled inadmissible. ❋ Unknown (2007)

It touched some kind of chord at the time, because besides Andrew Sullivan, I got appreciative notes from Aryeh Neier and a conservative pastor who told me that he was surprised to see in a secular magazine of any kind a literal imprecation — and not, so far as he could tell, meant merely ironically. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Santelli's smug imprecation is much more than a punitive response to President Barack Obama's efforts to help people who got in over their heads trying to stake a claim to The American Dream. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Do not avert your eyes from the needy, give no one occasion to curse you; for if someone curses you in distress, his Maker will give ear to the imprecation. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The mother of Micah clearly is presented as having the right to utter a legally valid imprecation; indeed this text is the only biblical narrative that presents a property-protection use of a curse. ❋ Unknown (2009)