deafen
English
Etymology
![]() ![]() |
, compare Middle English deven, deaven (“to make deaf”), Old English ādēafian (“to deafen”), Dutch verdoven (“to stupefy, deafen”), German betäuben (“to stun, stupefy, deafen”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈdɛfən/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛfən
Verb
deafen (third-person singular simple present deafens, present participle deafening, simple past and past participle deafened)
- (transitive) To make deaf, either temporarily or permanently.
- (transitive) To make soundproof.
- to deafen a wall or a floor
- (transitive, rare, dialectal, sometimes figurative) To stun, as with noise.
- 1855, Macaulay
- Racine left the ground […] deafened, dazzled and tired to death.
- 1855, Macaulay
Translations
to make deaf
|
to make soundproof
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.