DEADEN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does deaden mean? 

• DEADEN (verb)
  The verb DEADEN has 7 senses:

1. make vague or obscure or make (an image) less visible

2. cut a girdle around so as to kill by interrupting the circulation of water and nutrients

3. make vapid or deprive of spirit

4. lessen the momentum or velocity of

5. become lifeless, less lively, intense, or active; lose life, force, or vigor

6. make less lively, intense, or vigorous; impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation

7. convert (metallic mercury) into a grey powder consisting of minute globules, as by shaking with chalk or fatty oil

  Familiarity information: DEADEN used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEADEN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they deaden    ... he / she / it deadens   
Past simple: deadened   
Past participle: deadened   
-ing form: deadening   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make vague or obscure or make (an image) less visible

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

damp; dampen; deaden

Context example:

muffle the message

Hypernyms (to "deaden" is one way to...):

break; damp; dampen; soften; weaken (lessen in force or effect)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cut a girdle around so as to kill by interrupting the circulation of water and nutrients

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

deaden; girdle

Context example:

girdle the plant

Hypernyms (to "deaden" is one way to...):

incise (make an incision into by carving or cutting)

Domain category:

flora; plant; plant life ((botany) a living organism lacking the power of locomotion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make vapid or deprive of spirit

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

deadened wine

Hypernyms (to "deaden" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Lessen the momentum or velocity of

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

deaden a ship's headway

Hypernyms (to "deaden" is one way to...):

retard (cause to move more slowly or operate at a slower rate)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Become lifeless, less lively, intense, or active; lose life, force, or vigor

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "deaden" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

deadening (the act of making something futile and useless (as by routine))

Sense 6

Meaning:

Make less lively, intense, or vigorous; impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

blunt; deaden

Context example:

deaden a sound

Hypernyms (to "deaden" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "deaden"):

obtund (reduce the edge or violence of)

petrify (cause to become stonelike or stiff or dazed and stunned from fright)

break; damp; dampen; soften; weaken (lessen in force or effect)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

enliven (make lively)

Derivation:

deadening (the act of making something futile and useless (as by routine))

Sense 7

Meaning:

Convert (metallic mercury) into a grey powder consisting of minute globules, as by shaking with chalk or fatty oil

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "deaden" is one way to...):

convert (change the nature, purpose, or function of something)

Domain category:

chemical science; chemistry (the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

As soon as they were gone, Elizabeth walked out to recover her spirits; or in other words, to dwell without interruption on those subjects that must deaden them more.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

It had been serviceable in deadening the first shock, without retaining any influence to alarm.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

They were far off, but the sound, even though coming muffled through the deadening snowfall, was full of terror.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He envied Joe, down in the village, rampant, tearing the slats off the bar, his brain gnawing with maggots, exulting in maudlin ways over maudlin things, fantastically and gloriously drunk and forgetful of Monday morning and the week of deadening toil to come.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Tom's complaints had been greatly heightened by the shock of his sister's conduct, and his recovery so much thrown back by it, that even Lady Bertram had been struck by the difference, and all her alarms were regularly sent off to her husband; and Julia's elopement, the additional blow which had met him on his arrival in London, though its force had been deadened at the moment, must, she knew, be sorely felt.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

These were the circumstances and the hopes which gradually brought their alleviation to Sir Thomas, deadening his sense of what was lost, and in part reconciling him to himself; though the anguish arising from the conviction of his own errors in the education of his daughters was never to be entirely done away.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)