Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a strong expression of reprehension or dislike.

c.1707		‘Long Vacation’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) IV 143: I whip’d into an Ally [...] They could not pursue; / So got rid of my Mistress, / And D--- Reckoning too.
1733		Laugh and Be Fat 132: Damn Whores, I’d not give Three-pence for a T--t.
1807		J.R. Shaw Life and Travels 57: He called me a d--n rebel.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 11: Old SID and the great Doctor EADY together, / Both fam’d on the walls – with a d--n, in addition, / Prefix’d to the name of the former Physician.
1844		J.H. Carleton Prairie Logbooks (1983) 12 Sept. 141: My son – he’s dam bad ugly – chip of the old block.
1854		in J. Blassingame Slave Testimony (1977) 322: A damn runaway nigger – throw him overboard!
1867		C. White Virginia Mummy in Darkey Drama 2 Act I: Why, he say, clar out you dam nigger.
1889		Abilene Wkly Reflector (KS) 3 Jan. 5/3: We don’t want none of your Dam slang.
1896		M. Williams Round London 235: Robert S-- is a d--n fraud.
1898		H. Macilwaine Dinkinbar 81: No, it’s only dam cheek like yours that wins.
1903		A. Adams Log Of A Cowboy 197: That’s another damn lie.
1905		‘Whole Dam Family’ in Green & Laurie (1951) 🎵 ‘There was Mr. Dam and Mrs. Dam, the Dam kids, two or three; / with U.B. Dam and I.B. Dam and the whole Dam family!’.
c.1921		T. Norman Penny Showman 7: Why he’s a bigger damn liar than you are.
1938		Western Mail (Perth) 5 May 12/1: A dam nigger-looking cove we’ve got in the fo’c’stle.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 43: You know your damn Science upsets my stomach.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 15: I don’t know, that isn’t the whole damn truth.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 23: Those damn women sure getting good to you lately.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 31: I ain’t goin’ back to no damn court no more.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 30: I just hope that damn junkie knew what he was talkin’ bout.
1980		M. Thelwell Harder They Come 367: You think a damn dutty little criminal [...] can help you more dan me?
1999		S. Grafton O is for Outlaw (2000) 391: The very notion had put Mark on a tear, thinking we had evidence of their association. Big damn deal. Even if we had such a picture, what would that prove?

2. a general intensifier, complete, utter.

1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 170: That’s damn rot.
1956		I. Fleming Diamonds Are Forever (1958) 57: You’re a dam fool to be operating alone.
1971		B. Moyers Listening to America 150: Weeds are taking over. It’s a damn shame.

3. as an infix, e.g. anydamnbody.

1919		see absogoddamlutely adv.
1961		H. Ellison Rockabilly (1963) 67: I don’t care what Kilgallen or Winchell or anydamnbody says.
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 89: I’m sitting there a colored buck-ass private in the rear-damn-ranks [...] impersonating a first-damn-sergeant – and this white mother-hunching M-damn-P putting me on guard over a cracker buck sergreant.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 43: What do you think happened to Anson and Red-Dog? [...] Or Charlie Falco? They’re all in San-Damn Quentin.
1990		E. Ruggero 38 North Yankee 215: I can guaran-damn-tee he wouldn’t have told the old man.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 14: Then I went back to my car ... and my son-of-damn-bitch keys were gone!