English edit

Pronunciation edit

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈdɛfənɪŋ(ɡ)/
  • (file)

Adjective edit

deafening (comparative more deafening, superlative most deafening)

  1. Loud enough to cause temporary or permanent hearing loss.
    • 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:
      But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.
  2. (hyperbolic) Very loud.
    • 2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0 - 2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport[1]:
      At the end of a frantic first 45 minutes, there was still time for Charlie Adam to strike the bar from 20 yards before referee Atkinson departed to a deafening chorus of jeering from Everton's fans.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit

Verb edit

deafening

  1. present participle and gerund of deafen

Noun edit

deafening (countable and uncountable, plural deafenings)

  1. (architecture) pugging
  2. The process by which something is deafened.
    • 2012, Gary Taylor, Trish Thomas Henley, The Oxford Handbook of Thomas Middleton, page 338:
      Film and dance theory offer a productive vocabulary for considering the effects of these mutings and deafenings.

References edit