DEADENING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Deadening

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/dˈɛdənɪŋ/ /dˈɛdnɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Deaden v. t. (past & past part. deadened; pres. part. deadening)

To make as dead; to impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation; to lessen the force or acuteness of; to blunt; as, to deaden the natural powers or feelings; to deaden a sound. "As harper lays his open palm Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations."

To lessen the velocity or momentum of; to retard; as, to deaden a ship's headway.

To make vapid or spiritless; as, to deaden wine.

To deprive of gloss or brilliancy; to obscure; as, to deaden gilding by a coat of size.

To render impervious to sound, as a wall or floor; to deafen.

noun

deadening n. The act of making something futile and useless (as by routine).

Synonyms: stultification, impairment.

adjective

deadening adj.

Rendering less lively, intense, or vigorous; as, the deadening effect of some routine tasks.

So lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness; as, the deadening effect of some routine tasks.

Synonyms: boring, dreary, ho-hum, irksome, tedious, tiresome, wearisome.

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Etymology of 'Deadening'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Deadening" Quotes from Famous Books

... sitting there with the impassive faces of officialdom might have been articles of furniture, so remote were they from displaying the slightest interest in the private matters discussed between the two. No doubt they had been present at many similar scenes, and custom is a deadening factor. Mr. Oakham's object was to urge his client to consent to the lodgement of an appeal against the jury's verdict, and to that end he advanced a multitude of arguments and a variety of reasons. The young man listened patiently, but when the solicitor had concluded he shook his head with a ...

— The Shrieking Pit • Arthur J. Rees

... Beethoven's anniversary, Ernest Newman remarks that "a truly civilized community would probably celebrate a centenary by prohibiting all performances of the master's works for three or five years, so that the public's deadening familiarity with them might wear off. That would be the greatest service ...

— The So-called Human Race • Bert Leston Taylor

... brazier had died away, and the smoke came only in fitful puffs, heavy with deadening perfume. The Thug had not got away. He lay on the floor—a dreadful sight. He was lying on his back, his hands clenched, his body arched in a convulsion, his head drawn far back. The black lips were parted over the ugly teeth, and the eyes had rolled upward till they gleamed, ...

— The Gloved Hand • Burton E. Stevenson

... angusta domi" stimulated the composer's pen, and the rapidity of his productions at this time is marvellous. The taste of Vienna, however, was capricious; and cabals among singers and critics succeeded in deadening the effect of his Figaro, when first brought out, and in thoroughly disgusting Mozart with the Viennese opera. How different the reception which it met from the true hearts and well-attuned ears of the Bohemian audiences! It was in February 1787, ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 361, November, 1845. • Various

... five or six of which the pupil is obliged to wade, one after another, to find in each, only the same matter in sentences of a somewhat greater length. Hence, to go one step farther, the stupefying of so many minds in our schools. Nothing is more deadening to all mental activity than unmeaning repetitions, a fact easily verified by any one who, wakeful through mental disturbance at night, will take the trouble to repeat and re-repeat any meaningless thing. It is the lounging, deadening brain-work ...

— The Education of American Girls • Anna Callender Brackett

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