"prove damaging" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It means to show or demonstrate that something will cause harm or negative consequences. Example: The new regulations could prove damaging to small businesses, leading to job losses and financial struggles.
A misstep could prove damaging.
But a gaffe on his part could still prove damaging.
Further, over exposure of plant tissue to high levels of ultra violet radiation can prove damaging.
And it's an idea that may ultimately prove damaging to the U.S.
Once a desert surface is disturbed, a chain reaction of events is set in motion that can prove damaging.
Though the Defense Department has admitted to erasing a number of other tapes of Marri, the surviving tapes could prove damaging should the case go to trial.
The strategies employees use to cope with unrealistic expectations often prove damaging to them and to the organizations they work for.
But any suggestion that Britain could also have intercepted the calls of German politicians or officials – even if only as part of a much wider sweep of the German capital – would prove damaging.
But the remarkable career of a "one-woman wrecking crew" (as one newspaper called her) may prove damaging to a government that took power pledged to clean up sleaze.
Yet cuts in teaching staff may be unsustainable, since large classes are unpopular; and though it is too early to assess the cost to pupils, they could also prove damaging in the longer term.Things might have been worse.
While John F. Haggerty Jr., a Republican political operative, will be the only defendant sitting at the defense table when his trial begins this week, the proceeding could prove damaging for another person: the mayor of New York.
