Adjacent Words

deadening definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness; "a boring evening with uninteresting people"; "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"- Edmund Burke; "tedious days on the train"; "the tiresome chirping of a cricket"- Mark Twain; "other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome" [syn: boring, deadening, dull, ho-hum, irksome, slow, tedious, tiresome, wearisome] n
1: the act of making something futile and useless (as by routine) [syn: stultification, constipation, impairment, deadening]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: circa 1874 material used to soundproof walls or floors

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Deaden Dead"en, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Deadened; p. pr. & vb. n. Deadening.] [From Dead; cf. AS. d?dan to kill, put to death. See Dead, a.] 1. 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

A deadening situation destroys people's enthusiasm and imagination. She was bored with the deadening routine of her life. ADJ: usu ADJ n

Moby Thesaurus

abatement, abating, allaying, allayment, alleviating, alleviation, alleviative, analgesia, analgesic, anesthesia, anesthetic, anesthetizing, anodyne, appeasement, assuagement, assuaging, assuasive, attenuation, attrition, balmy, balsamic, benumbing, blunting, calming, cathartic, chastening, cleansing, cushioning, dampening, damping, debilitation, demulcent, demulsion, devitalization, dilution, diminishing, diminishment, diminution, dulcification, dulling, ease, easement, easing, effemination, emollient, enervation, enfeeblement, evisceration, exhaustion, extenuation, falling-off, fatigue, hushing, inanition, languishment, leniency, lenitive, lessening, letdown, letup, lightening, loosening, lulling, mitigating, mitigation, mitigative, modulation, mollification, narcotic, numbing, pacification, pain-killing, palliation, palliative, purgative, quietening, quieting, reducing, reduction, relaxation, relaxing, relief, relieving, remedial, remedy, remission, salving, slackening, softening, soothing, stunning, stupefying, subduement, subduing, tempering, thinning, tranquilization, weakening