deafen
verb/ˈdɛfən/
Etymology 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”).
1
To make deaf, either temporarily or permanently.
- The head injury deafened her for life.
2
To make soundproof.
- to deafen a wall or a floor
3
Dialectal, Figuratively, Rare, Sometimes To stun, as with noise.
- Racine left the ground […] deafened, dazzled and tired to death.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
- Derived terms
- bedeafen, deafener, undeafen, undeafened