Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an oath of annoyance.

1607		Tourneur Revenger’s Tragedy in Dodsley X (1875) I i: O damnation meet!
1657		Marlowe Lascivious Queen V i: Damnation! vanish from me.
1694		Congreve The Double-Dealer V iv: My wife! damnation! my hell!
1701		Cibber Love Makes a Man IV i: Damnation!
1761		G. Colman Jealous Wife V ii: Damnation! [...] Fire and fury! how dare you do this?
1776		G. Colman The Spleen II i: Damnation!
1787		Adventures of Jonathan Corncob 190: Damnation to you [...] you lubberly rascal.
1791		J. Gillray The Hopes of the Party, prior to July 14th (cartoon) 19 July : Damnation! what should I be afraid of!
1828		D. Jerrold The Golden Calf I ii: Damnation! Dolt!
1837		Thackeray Yellowplush Papers in Works III (1898) 251: Altamont looked black as thunder, and growled out a word which I don’t like to name [...] it begins with a d and ends with a nation.
1839		(con. 1715) H.W. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1917) 81: Damnation! [...] that I should be the dupe of such a miserable artifice!
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 277: ‘Damnation!’ thundered Bob.
1851		M. Reid The Scalp-Hunters III 98: I am ’ithout eyther beast or weepun. D--t--n!
1868		Dly Ohio Statesman 13 June 1/4: Damnation [...] don’t split on me, for heavens sake.
1919		‘Sax Rohmer’ Dope 221: ‘Damnation!’ he said succinctly.
1922		Wodehouse The Clicking of Cuthbert 51: ‘Damnation!’ said Mortimer.
1938		Xavier Herbert Capricornia (1939) 123: Damnation --- fool --- God! I do b’lieve you got the kid in trouble ’self.
1945		N. Marsh Died in the Wool (1963) 203: ‘Hell and damnation!’ said Allen violently.
1959		E. De Roo Young Wolves 131: Where could I have lost them? All of them! Chief’s---hell and damnation.
1965		W.C. Anderson Adam M-1 114: Damnation! I should have been on the alert for this.