Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To render less intense, sensitive, or vigorous.
  • intransitive verb To make soundproof.
  • intransitive verb To make less colorful or brilliant.
  • intransitive verb To become dead.
  • intransitive verb To lose vigor, brilliance, or liveliness.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make dead (in a figurative sense); render less sensitive, active, energetic, or forcible; impair the sensitiveness or the strength of; dull; weaken: as, to deaden sound; to deaden the force of a ball; to deaden the sensibilities.
  • To retard; hinder; lessen the velocity or momentum of: as, to deaden a ship's way (that is, to retard her progress).
  • To make impervious to sound, as a floor.
  • To make insipid, flat, or stale: said of wine or beer.
  • To deprive of gloss or brilliancy: as, to deaden gilding by a coat of size.
  • To kill; especially, to kill (trees) by girdling.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make as dead; to impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation; to lessen the force or acuteness of; to blunt
  • transitive verb To lessen the velocity or momentum of; to retard.
  • transitive verb To make vapid or spiritless.
  • transitive verb To deprive of gloss or brilliancy; to obscure.
  • transitive verb To render impervious to sound, as a wall or floor; to deafen.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To render less lively; to diminish; to muffle.
  • verb intransitive To become less lively; to diminish (by itself).
  • verb transitive To make soundproof.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb lessen the momentum or velocity of
  • verb become lifeless, less lively, intense, or active; lose life, force, or vigor
  • verb make vapid or deprive of spirit
  • verb cut a girdle around so as to kill by interrupting the circulation of water and nutrients
  • verb make vague or obscure or make (an image) less visible
  • verb make less lively, intense, or vigorous; impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation
  • verb convert (metallic mercury) into a grey powder consisting of minute globules, as by shaking with chalk or fatty oil

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

dead +‎ -en

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Examples

  • The air in the little chamber surrounding the mirror is compressed at will, so as to act like a cushion, and 'deaden' the movements of the mirror.

    Heroes of the Telegraph John Munro 1889

  • Jokes aside, this 100 minute thing made us realize that spreading the story over several months would kind of deaden the impact of the timeframe device, not to mention starting the war a month after #0.

    Superman Homepage - News 2010

  • Jokes aside, this 100 minute thing made us realize that spreading the story over several months would kind of deaden the impact of the timeframe device, not to mention starting the war a month after #0.

    Superman Homepage - News 2010

  • The residents also say the structures will "deaden" the atmosphere of the Lower Town neighborhood, stunt economic development in the area and violate the city's Northeast Area Plan - a set of goals, land-use recommendations and objectives for the area surrounding the proposed site.

    The Michigan Daily 2008

  • This flag will ward off any spells that want to deaden your imagination, stop you from ecstatically moving, and prevent the wind of spirit from blowing.

    The Bushman Way of Tracking God PhD Bradford Keeney 2010

  • It's like the New Agers who all believe that they were princesses in a past life - none of these schmoes stops to think that, for most of them, life would have ended at 40, having spent most of their existence breathing in coal dust or risking limbs for enough wages to keep a roof over their head and to buy enough alcohol to deaden the pain until the next day's twelve-hour shift.

    Deadwood as the model of a Conservatives Utopia 2010

  • The Sarah Connor Chronicles only served to deaden my love for the Terminator mythos further, as the casting choices were predominantly poor and the storylines meandered between plodding and preposterous -- but this isn't about my lament for a failed franchise, it's about a promising novel.

    Wish List Wednesday #27: The Alchemy of Stone 2009

  • The Sarah Connor Chronicles only served to deaden my love for the Terminator mythos further, as the casting choices were predominantly poor and the storylines meandered between plodding and preposterous -- but this isn't about my lament for a failed franchise, it's about a promising novel.

    Archive 2009-12-01 2009

  • They are looking for anything that will deaden the never-ending inner ache.

    Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: Anthony Weiner and Why Powerful Men Self-Destruct Rabbi Shmuley Boteach 2011

  • They are looking for anything that will deaden the never-ending inner ache.

    Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: Anthony Weiner and Why Powerful Men Self-Destruct Rabbi Shmuley Boteach 2011

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