DEADENING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Deadening

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/dˈɛdənɪŋ/ /dˈɛdnɪŋ/ Listen

Deadening

noun

1.

The act of making something futile and useless (as by routine). Synonyms: constipation, impairment, stultification.

adjective

1.

So lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness. Synonyms: boring, dull, ho-hum, irksome, slow, tedious, tiresome, wearisome. "The deadening effect of some routine tasks" , "A dull play" , "His competent but dull performance" , "A ho-hum speaker who couldn't capture their attention" , "What an irksome task the writing of long letters is" , "Tedious days on the train" , "The tiresome chirping of a cricket" , "Other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome"

Deaden

verb

(past & past part. deadened; pres. part. deadening)

1.

Make vague or obscure or make (an image) less visible. Synonyms: damp, dampen.

2.

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

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. Synonym: blunt. "Deaden a sound"

7.

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

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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Deadening" Quotes from Famous Books

... desirable and even necessary in the education of their children to become citizens and wage earners? Printed explanations and rules issued by libraries are either not read or not understood by the majority of persons to whom they are addressed. There is something very deadening to the person of average intelligence about most printed explanations of library work. Pictures which bring the work before people from the human side might be more successful and I wish to submit an outline for ...

— Library Work with Children • Alice I. Hazeltine

... of all the deadening influences, all the horror of her married life, she had remained a child. When the Comte de Verneuil had found her unforgiving in the matter of the false announcement of Paragot's death, he had left her pretty much to herself, and had gone after the strange ...

— The Beloved Vagabond • William J. Locke

... pavilion hand in hand, and on through the sunshine they strolled, swinging hands gaily, reacting exuberantly from the week of deadening toil. They hung over the railing of the bear-pit, shivering at the huge and lonely denizen, and passed quickly on to ten minutes of laughter at the monkey cage. Crossing the grounds, they looked down into the little race track on the bed of a natural ...

— The Valley of the Moon • Jack London

... factory, in proportion as his work grows dull and monotonous, his recreation must become more exciting and stimulating. The hopelessness of adding evening classes and social entertainments as a mere frill to a day filled with monotonous and deadening drudgery constantly becomes more apparent to those who are endeavoring to bring a fuller life to the industrial members of the community, and who are looking forward to a time when work shall cease to be senseless drudgery with no self-expression on the part of the worker. It sometimes seems that ...

— Democracy and Social Ethics • Jane Addams

... fully, and was trying to reassure myself as to my being in a place of comparative safety, for, above all things, I dreaded the betrayal of fainting, and struggled hard for such courage as I might attain by deadening myself to the danger I was in by inflicting intense pain on myself. You have often asked me the reason of that mark on my hand; it was where, in my agony, I bit out a piece of flesh with my relentless ...

— The Grey Woman and other Tales • Mrs. (Elizabeth) Gaskell

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