Word.ws English Dictionary

damn the torpedoes

damn the torpedoes verb: used to dismiss the risks of a dangerous action.

Verb

damn the torpedoes (third-person singular simple present damns the torpedoes, present participle damning the torpedoes, simple past and past participle damned the torpedoes)

  1. (idiomatic, imperative) Used to dismiss the risks of a dangerous action.
    • There's too much attention paid to the wrong issues. Let's just damn the torpedoes and get it done.1991 January 27, “Did Hollywood Sit on 'Fences'?”, in New York Times

Forms of damn the torpedoes

third-person singular presentdamns the torpedoes
present participledamning the torpedoes
past participledamned the torpedoes
pastdamned the torpedoes

Origin of damn the torpedoes

From "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!", a famous order issued by Admiral David Farragut during the Battle of Mobile Bay, a paraphrase of the actual order, "Damn the torpedoes! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!".

Questions about damn the torpedoes

What does damn the torpedoes mean?
Damn the torpedoes means used to dismiss the risks of a dangerous action.
What part of speech is damn the torpedoes?
Damn the torpedoes is a verb.
What is the past tense of damn the torpedoes?
The past tense of damn the torpedoes is damned the torpedoes.

Words near damn the torpedoes in the dictionary

  1. damn it
  2. damn my eyes
  3. damn right
  4. damn skippy
  5. damn straight
  6. damn the torpedoes
  7. damn tootin'
  8. damn tooting
  9. damn up
  10. damn well
  11. damn with faint praise

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: damn the torpedoes (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-damn the torpedoes.ogg.

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