Well actually that's the Christianized definition of the term. Historically, it has been used as a curse to call power from the gods for you/against a fella. I guess you can say the equivalent is to "smite" them because some believe the term originated to call upon the god of thunder from Finnish paganism but it's not agreed. (really though "Damn it" is the better translation)
AhemAccording to the most commonly accepted theory, Perkele is a loan word from the Baltics, meaning the name of the pagan god of thunder (according to some having potentially been the original name of the finnish deity Ukko), in the baltics the equivelant word having been
perkons and
perkūnas with the said meaning.
On the other hand professor of fenno-ugricstics Ulla-Maija Fosberg and archeologist Unto Salo suggest it'd instead mean basically "hell", like the estonian word
põrgu (hell), votic word
põrku (hell, underworld) and the karelian word
perkeleh (an evil spirit).
In short it's complicated but I've never heard of any theory suggesting it having been used as a curse to call power from the gods in finnish.