deaden

[ded-n]

verb (used with object)

1. to make less sensitive, active, energetic, or forcible; weaken.

   to deaden sound; to deaden the senses; to deaden the force of a blow.

   Synonyms: dull, numb, lessen, diminish, blunt

2. to lessen the velocity of; retard.

   to deaden the headway of a ship.

3. to make impervious to sound, as a floor.

verb (used without object)

1. to become dead.

deaden

/ ˈdɛdən /

verb

1. to make or become less sensitive, intense, lively, etc; damp or be damped down; dull

2. (tr) to make acoustically less resonant

   he deadened the room with heavy curtains

Other Word Forms

• deadening adjective
• deadener noun
• undeadened adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of deaden¹

First recorded in 1655–65; dead + -en ¹

Example Sentences

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..."

Read more on BBC

They were trying to return from popular Emerald Bay to their west side home in midafternoon when eight-foot swells swamped the boat, deadening the engine and capsizing the vessel off rocky Rubicon Point near D.L.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Repeatedly returning to themes of globalization and alienation, the 55-year-old director has meticulously chronicled his country’s uneasy plunge into the 21st century as rampant industrialization risks deadening those left behind.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

She was shot three times at close range, with a blanket wrapped around the gun to deaden the sound.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

That sounds dramatic until you study the rise of fascism throughout history, which has always required a slow deadening, numbing and apathy in people.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• desensitize 
• impair