deafen
English
editEtymology
editFrom deaf + -en (verbal suffix), 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
edit- IPA(key): /ˈdɛfən/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛfən
Verb
editdeafen (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.
- 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
- Racine left the ground […] deafened, dazzled and tired to death.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editto 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.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰewbʰ-
- English terms suffixed with -en (inchoative)
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛfən
- Rhymes:English/ɛfən/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with rare senses
- English dialectal terms
- English terms with quotations