deafen
pronunciation
How to pronounce deafen in British English:
UK [ˈdefn]
How to pronounce deafen in American English:
US [ˈdɛfən]
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- Verb:
- be unbearably loud
- make or render deaf
- make soundproof
Word Origin
- deafen (v.)
- 1590s, "to make deaf," from deaf + -en (1). The earlier verb was simply deaf (mid-15c.). For "to become deaf, to grow deaf," Old English had adeafian (intransitive), which survived into Middle English as deave but then took on a transitive sense from mid-14c. and sank from use except in dialects (where it mostly has transitive and figurative senses), leaving English without an intransitive verb here.
Example
- 1. The way you complain all day long would deafen the living buddha !
- 2. Texting on your mobile phone while crossing the road , for example , might deafen your ears to the sound of an approaching car .
- 3. Fine fine read come , deafen hair deaf , in the meantime , sturdy the position that we must oppose formalism .
- 4. The storm culminated in one matchless effort that seemed likely to tear the island to pieces , burn it up , drown it to the treetops , blow it away , and deafen every creature in it , all at one and the same moment .
- 5. Hal whitehead , a biology professor at dalhousie university in canada , said that sperm whales have sonars to find fish that are so powerful that they could permanently deafen others nearby if used at full blast .