deaden
Americanverb (used with object)
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deadens,
present (3rd person singular)
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deadened,
past participle, past
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deadening
present participle
verb (used without object)
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deadens,
present (3rd person singular)
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deadened,
past participle, past
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deadening
present participle
verb
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to make or become less sensitive, intense, lively, etc; damp or be damped down; dull
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(tr) to make acoustically less resonant
he deadened the room with heavy curtains
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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deadensimple
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deadenssimple
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have deadenedperfect
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has deadenedperfect
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am deadeningprogressive
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are deadeningprogressive
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is deadeningprogressive
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have been deadeningperfect progressive
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has been deadeningperfect progressive
Past
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deadenedsimple
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had deadenedperfect
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was deadeningprogressive
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were deadeningprogressive
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had been deadeningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of deaden
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The evening signaled that this is not the type of show that will deaden an artist behind glass vitrines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026
The truth, however, is the obscure word - meaning "to deaden" - is the name of a police-led training exercise.
From BBC ● Jan. 17, 2024
The biggest is the ball and the size of the stitches, Nathan said, and MLB made slight adjustments to deaden the ball prior to the 2021 season.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 7, 2023
There is always a narrative risk when recapitulating events in historical fiction — predetermination can deaden the pulse.
From New York Times ● Jan. 3, 2023
I shake my hand to deaden the pain.
From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson
And the unique geology of the city of Kyiv, built on wetlands and flood plains, deadens signals from explosions, researchers say.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 3, 2023
But as a series of historic droughts deadens vast expanses of South America, he fears a worsening water crisis could do what other calamities couldn’t: Bust his third-generation agribusiness.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 24, 2021
Lyndall Gordon’s endured a “boredom that deadens the air around my father”.
From Economist ● Apr. 19, 2018
The appeal of these characters challenges the habit of demographic pigeonholing that deadens and deforms too much of the discussion of popular culture.
From New York Times ● Jul. 3, 2015
I find myself pawing at my left ear periodically, trying to clean away whatever deadens its ability to collect sounds.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
For others, stop-start has deadened the joy of driving.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
I certainly think it's made me a more appreciative one, especially coming out of winter — a season where my senses inevitably feel a little deadened after marching through a procession of gray, sunless days.
From Salon ● Apr. 1, 2023
It’s pleasant to type on, thanks to each key’s even and clear sound signature, lacking ping or hollowness — though some may find it overly deadened.
From The Verge ● Aug. 30, 2022
Rantanen’s wrist shot over Smith’s left shoulder 57 seconds into the third period deadened Scotiabank Saddledome as Flames fans began coming to grips with team’s impending first-round upset.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2019
Ron stuffed the Sneakoscope into a particularly horrible pair of Uncle Vernon’s old socks, which deadened the sound, then closed the lid of the trunk on it.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
It’s hard to know from his palette what thrills him, or if he sees colors at all, given the film’s muddy, deadening grayscape.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
The decision still means joy or despair, but the virtual nature of acceptance and rejection, the evidence of no human hand, is a little deadening.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
Likewise, many well-known geniuses like Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger and Fritz Lang, who were chased out of Europe by the Nazis, brilliantly exposed the hypocrisies and soul deadening conformity of mainstream American culture.
From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2026
If You're Glad I'll Be Frank imagined the speaking clock as a real woman speaking live, her internal monologue utterly at odds with the deadening repetitiveness of endlessly intoning "at the third stroke..."
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2025
The ice ball exploded, spraying his entire body with freezing, paralyzing streams of water, weighing down his arms, deadening his legs, squeezing his heart.
From "The Contender" by Robert Lipsyte
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
