deadening

American  

[ded-n-ing] / ˈdɛd n ɪŋ /

noun

1. a device or material employed to deaden or render dull.

2. a device or material preventing the transmission of sound.

3. a woodland in which the trees are killed by girdling prior to being cleared.

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Etymology

Origin of deadening

First recorded in 1775–85; deaden + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

The Black Hawk helicopter was ready for take off – its rotor blades slicing through the air in the deadening heat of the Colombian Amazon.

From BBC

She then delivered a speech that denounced the notion of cultural appropriation and its deadening effects on literature.

From The Wall Street Journal

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

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

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.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• calming