AbstractThis paper presents a study on quantitative prediction and understanding of time-harmonic wave characteristics in damped plates. Material dissipation is modelled by using complex-valued velocities of free dilatation and shear waves in an unbounded volume. As a numerical example, solution of the classical Rayleigh–Lamb problem for a viscoelastic plate is presented to illustrate and discuss the role of dissipation in the cut-off phenomenon and in the phenomenon of veering for dispersion curves. These phenomena are explained in more detail considering a simple model, which allows accurate asymptotic analysis of the perturbation of dispersion curves in the regions of cut-off and veering.