deadening

[ded-n-ing]

dead·en·ing

[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.

Origin:
1775–85; deaden + -ing1

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Deadening is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Dictionary.com Unabridged

dead·en

[ded-n]
verb (used with object)
1.
to make less sensitive, active, energetic, or forcible; weaken: to deaden sound; to deaden the senses; to deaden the force of a blow.
2.
to lessen the velocity of; retard: to deaden the headway of a ship.
3.
to make impervious to sound, as a floor.
verb (used without object)
4.
to become dead.

Origin:
1655–65; dead + -en1

dead·en·er, noun
un·dead·ened, adjective


1. blunt, diminish, lessen, numb, dull.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To deadening
Collins
World English Dictionary
deaden (ˈdɛdən)
 
vb
1.  to make or become less sensitive, intense, lively, etc; damp or be damped down; dull
2.  (tr) to make acoustically less resonant: he deadened the room with heavy curtains
 
'deadener
 
n
 
'deadening
 
adj

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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