Link Centre Dictionary

deafen

dea·fen

UK/ˈdɛfən/ US/ˈdɛfʌn/ uncommon rare

verb

1.

be unbearably loud

  • “a deafening noise”
2.

make or render deaf

  • “a deafening noise”
Synonyms
3.

make soundproof

  • “deafen a room”

Origin

From deaf + -en (verbal suffix). Compare Middle English deven, deaven (“to make deaf”), Old English ādēafian (“to deafen”) and Old English ādȳfan, Dutch verdoven (“to stupefy, deafen”), German betäuben (“to stun, stupefy, deafen”).

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Broader terms

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.