deadening

[ ded-n-ing ]

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of deadening¹

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

Example Sentences

Its recurring phrase is now the deadening, argument-stifling “As a mom,” cited frequently by Jenny McCarthy and Sherri Shepherd.

From The Daily Beast

Hired as a mechanic, he would soon find himself behind the wheel, yet “he found oval racing a deadening merry-go-round.”

From The Daily Beast

Yes, many of those jobs are poorly paid and deadening, agreed and acknowledged.

From The Daily Beast

Never has there been a religion more depressing, more hopeless, more deadening to all initiative.

From Project Gutenberg

And in a few minutes Paul heard his father's heavy steps go thudding over the deadening snow.

From Project Gutenberg

Missionaries in foreign-mission lands speak much of the peculiar, deadening, moral atmosphere there.

From Project Gutenberg

Nothing is more deadening and more commonplace than this peculiar form of wit, when it becomes a habit or offers itself in a mass.

From Project Gutenberg

Night and the March moon awake the winter-dormant wilderness from the white man's deadening spell.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• calming