Verb (used with object) : to deaden sound; to deaden the senses; to deaden the force of a blow. ,to deaden the headway of a ship.    From Dictionary.com. 

Another problem is that often within them lies what I call the deadening paradox.    From Wordnik.com.  [Slugger O'Toole] Reference

Blocked feelings lead to a "deadening" of our emotions.    From Wordnik.com.  [Colleen Perry: Battling the Great Depression] Reference

Was this an expression of the "deadening" of the human spirit that takes place in Florida?.    From Wordnik.com.  ["My hollow shell gives you the finger."] Reference

• He finds driving a car "deadening," so he takes a bus to work from his home, reading or working on his laptop during the commute.    From Wordnik.com.  [Taking on Google by Learning From Ants] Reference

At the same time it's a kind of deadening question for journalists to be asking of other journalists.    From Wordnik.com.  [Press Gazette Latest News] Reference

I had walked on for some distance, without meeting any object of special interest, when, passing through a large "deadening,".    From Wordnik.com.  [Autobiography of a female slave,] Reference

Soon once more we were in underbrush and presently came square against a staked-and-ridered worm fence around a "deadening" dense with tall corn.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Flower of the Chapdelaines] Reference

It is deadening to him, to his work, and to his employer.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Book of Business Etiquette] Reference

Such is the deadening and perverting influence of popery.    From Wordnik.com.  [Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs] Reference

The same thought-deadening process afflicts American managers.    From Wordnik.com.  [Technology In Reverse] Reference

Asian students are too busy memorizing deadening answers to learn to think.    From Wordnik.com.  [Learning To Think] Reference

He spoke heavily, as though his words were weighted with some deadening memory.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Hermit of Far End] Reference

"The drug that paralyses without deadening the sense of pain," Beth interposed.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Beth Book Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius] Reference

There is no future for Labour in the comfortable but deadening policies of the past.    From Wordnik.com.  [David Miliband takes 'comfort zone' swipe at Ed in Labour leadership fight] Reference

It resonated deeply with a spirit in me that resisted the deadening routine of the job.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Day In The Life] Reference

And then he would lay the most miserable and heart-deadening feelings upon me possible.    From Wordnik.com.  [Adventures in the Land of Canaan] Reference

The Chepewyan was not long in disincumbering himself of the deadening clog of mortality.    From Wordnik.com.  [Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3)] Reference

Jeep claims the use of more sound-deadening material will make the cabin quieter this year.    From Wordnik.com.  [2011 Jeep Wrangler - Updated inside and out] Reference

My arm and shoulder did not recover from the stinging and deadening sensation for some time.    From Wordnik.com.  [Pharaoh's Broker Being the Very Remarkable Experiences in Another World of Isidor Werner] Reference

The emotional atmosphere, too, is sure to be abnormal, unnatural, and spiritually deadening.    From Wordnik.com.  [On the Firing Line in Education] Reference

But the most startling part about being encased in sound-deadening armor is the eerie silence.    From Wordnik.com.  [Full-Metal Traffic Jam] Reference

But while the timing is impressive, it is also deadening, stripping the staging of animated life.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sin Sangre (Without Blood)] Reference

"Are these deadening feelings payback for my ambivalence about getting pregnant in the first place?".    From Wordnik.com.  [Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.: PBS's 'This Emotional Life': Postpartum Depression] Reference

Unyielding obstinacy in discussion is deadening to conversation, and yet the extreme contrary is crippling.    From Wordnik.com.  [Conversation What to Say and How to Say it] Reference

It showed that this institution had a deadening effect upon the moral nature of the people who cherished it.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Life of Abraham Lincoln] Reference

At the same time as routine helps us, it can also harm us because routine, by its very nature, can be deadening.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dr. Susan Corso: Back to School and Conscious Routine] Reference

That most ubiquitous of urban structures that is generally accepted as truly deadening to the built environment.    From Wordnik.com.  [Gary P. Steuer: Art that Makes the Ordinary Extraordinary] Reference

He threw himself into it blindly, deadening his sorrow with the fruitful and wonderful opiate of poetry and dreams.    From Wordnik.com.  [The French Immortals Series — Complete] Reference

And she certainly took out her comforts on Elnathan. and all the rest helped her -- sort of deadening to him, though.    From Wordnik.com.  [Stories Worth Rereading] Reference

Conversation at its highest is the most delightful of intellectual stimulants; at its lowest the most deadening to intellect.    From Wordnik.com.  [Conversation What to Say and How to Say it] Reference

Nevertheless, despite the deadening of time, the mother-yearning over her child's loneliness never wholly left the poor Princess.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Genius] Reference

In fact, experimentation can be critical to real accomplishment, while following lockstep in a preordained path is often deadening.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Fine Art of Letting Go] Reference

A committed Marxist, the philosopher worked for a time on the assembly line in a Renault factory, something she found soul deadening.    From Wordnik.com.  [Simone Weil Brought To Life In New Oratorio] Reference

The slow buildup is more deadening than delicious -- though I admit there are a couple of goose-bump moments scattered here and there.    From Wordnik.com.  [JOAQUIN AFTER MIDNIGHT] Reference

The "noise-abatement industry" offers wall-stuffers, acoustical tiles and sound-deadening boards, among other soundproofing solutions.    From Wordnik.com.  [Rattle And Roar] Reference