damage control
42
3.4
- noun
- /ˈdæmɪdʒ kənˈtroʊl/
:
control de daños
- After the scandal broke, the politician's team focused on damage control to restore public trust.
- attempts at damage control
So they have to do damage control now and pretend that we're making all those stuff up.
- So they have to do damage control now and pretend that we're making all those stuff up.
- You know, we have damage control mode and we have a thrive mode and, and the goal is to be more in the thrive mode rather than damage control.
- Shame about not engaging in stuff that results in social devaluation and and if you have trying to hide that from the group or engage in damage control.
- And I think sometimes people cynically look at someone in APR role and they go, oh, your job is damage control.
Examples
-
What they are doing is damage control using the standard LA playbook.
Blog text (29) -
Such public disclosures have got to be difficult, but are seen as necessary for damage control.
Academic text (2007) -
Look, Nick, half of my job is damage control.
-
Hey, I was just doing some damage control.
-
The best he could hope for was to provide some damage control.
Academic text (1999) -
So they have to do damage control now and pretend that we're making all those stuff up.
-
It's time to implement damage control.
-
I have assigned two damage control teams to locate the source of our communication problems.
Fiction book (1994) -
Half an hour later, Patricia was still on the phone with her secretary trying to run damage control.
Fiction book (1999) -
Biden's a gaffe machine, so it's damage control 24/7 in the administration.
Blog text (10)
Synonyms
33
6.5
Something that prevents or reduces harm
16
5.6
Action that reduces the harm or seriousness of something
1
6.3
An action that reduces or stops the effect of something
How Recovered
748
2.5
157
3.2
- Informal
50
5.1
42
3.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'actions to limit or manage harm' is directly and transparently built from 'damage' (harm) + 'control' (to manage or restrain). Even when used in a specialised medical sense, it is a straightforward application of controlling damage rather than an idiomatic shift, and equivalent constructions exist in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer the general meaning.
Etymology
Damage control comes from work on ships, where the crew had to stop holes, pump out water and fight fires to keep a boat from sinking. They were literally trying to control the damage, so today damage control means 'actions to limit harm or reduce bad effects'.