tarnation

[ tahr-ney-shuh n ]

/ tɑrˈneɪ ʃən /

Older Use.

damnation.

damnation; hell (used as a euphemism): Where in tarnation is that boy?

damned.

Origin of tarnation

1775–85; blend of ’tarnal, dial. form of eternal and damnation

I'm owin' that tarnation little rat suthin' f'r the way he's been keelhaulin' me.

Pirates' Hope |Francis Lynde
They shoot more in an hour than they could eat in a year in their tarnation French wastefulness.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine--Vol. 54, No. 333, July 1843 |Various
This time they were rubies; Burmese rubies, my experience told me, and not a tarnation flaw in one of 'em.

A Crime of the Under-seas |Guy Boothby
Then I calculate we may as well give in, for your legs are a tarnation deal longer than ours, it seems.

Tales of the Sea |W.H.G. Kingston

Not quite so good as that, skipper, but it's tarnation near it.

The Second String |Nat Gould

tarnation

/ (tɑːˈneɪʃən) /

a euphemism for damnation