How to Use deaden in a Sentence

deaden

verb
  • He took aspirin to deaden the pain.
  • The new insulation will help to deaden the noise from the street outside.
  • No one else had beached their boat and swam toward me as alpine runoff deadened their limbs.
    — Maggie Slepian, Longreads, 2 Apr. 2024
  • And the shine from his latest gold medal hasn’t come close to deadening.
    — Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2024
  • In this case, it is left to the young to cut through the deadening sameness.
    — Dan Barry, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2018
  • Things like that might deaden your palate before your tasting.
    — Maggie Menderski, The Courier-Journal, 24 Sep. 2024
  • The barrage of facts and picayune contention deadened the room.
    — James Ellroy, Vanities, 7 Oct. 2017
  • Of course, there's a downside to that room and sound-deadening in the form of weight.
    — Jim Resnick, Ars Technica, 19 Apr. 2018
  • The only sure-fire way to deaden these coughs was using an opioid medicine.
    — Jeffrey E. Poehlmann, Philly.com, 7 June 2018
  • Sometime ice was the only thing used to try to deaden the pain before the limbs were crushed.
    — Frances D'emilio, Fox News, 9 Aug. 2018
  • In this soul-deadening freeze, who wouldn’t seek solace in a bottle?
    — Christopher Orr, The Atlantic, 20 Oct. 2017
  • The evening signaled that this is not the type of show that will deaden an artist behind glass vitrines.
    — Los Angeles Times, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Meanwhile, back in meatspace, the world burns on—one brain-deadening newsfeed at a time.
    — Peter Rubin, WIRED, 4 June 2019
  • The cabin should be quiet thanks to the sound-deadening acoustic front and side glass.
    — Michael Harley, Forbes, 30 Dec. 2024
  • Apparently, part of this comes from the foam around the ears, which is noise-deadening.
    — Alexander George, Popular Mechanics, 9 Nov. 2018
  • We are trained to be killing machines, deadening all emotion except anger.
    — Kathleen Parker, The Denver Post, 9 Mar. 2017
  • However, the airport does have a large wall at the north end of its property to deaden sound.
    — Martin E. Comas, OrlandoSentinel.com, 26 Feb. 2018
  • My only wish, which comes late at night, is for more sound-deadening material in the walls.
    — Ezra Dyer, Popular Mechanics, 16 Nov. 2018
  • Being away from them now feels deadening, rather than being attached to them without end.
    — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 14 Sep. 2017
  • And so is the payoff — a huge building that enhances rather than deadens its surroundings.
    — John King, SFChronicle.com, 26 Aug. 2019
  • The tuning of these earphones also pushes back the mids, which deadens vocals and makes the sound feel veiled.
    — Vlad Savov, The Verge, 30 Apr. 2018
  • Schjerfbeck also liked the way Degas bleached his pastels to deaden their tone.
    — Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2026
  • With each needle drop, Foley’s eyes deaden, as lifeless as the world outside.
    — Mike Postalakis, SPIN, 25 May 2022
  • One way of deadening the mind to distractions is by blowing opponents off the court.
    — Tim Ellis, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
  • Even floors can be reflective of soundwaves, so having carpets or rugs in your recording space can help deaden that bounce.
    — Ginni Saraswati, Rolling Stone, 11 Aug. 2022
  • Freezes caused by large cold fronts pushing into the state from arctic regions can ice over and deaden fruitful citrus trees.
    — Martin E. Comas, The Orlando Sentinel, 14 June 2026
  • Players, officials, and observers have assumed the balls were deadened.
    — Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 2019
  • Our default options provide shelter for a fraction of those who need it and at the same time deaden streets, crowd the sky, and anger neighbors.
    — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 16 Dec. 2025
  • Another method Tyler has had success with is using hearing aids not to amplify sound but to deaden it.
    — Avery Hurt, Discover Magazine, 6 June 2024
  • Over the last three months, their lives had become deadened by the extreme constraints placed upon them and by a total lack of contact with the outside world.
    — Caroline Hallemann, Town & Country, 1 July 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'deaden.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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