Deadened

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Made less intense or weakened in effect or feeling ; rendered unresponsive or numb physically or emotionally
2. Reduced in strength, force, or sensation so that impact or reaction is dulled ; caused to lose physical feeling or emotional responsiveness
3. Weakened or muted to diminish sharpness or power ; numbed or made insensitive to stimuli or feelings

Etymology: "Deadened" is the past tense and past participle of "deaden," so it simply carries the history of that verb. "Deaden" is formed from "dead" with the suffix "-en," a common English way of turning an adjective into a verb meaning "to make or become" that quality, as in "widen," "harden," or "soften." The original sense was therefore literal: to make something dead, or to cause it to die. The meaning then softened over time. Rather than killing, "deaden" came to describe reducing the force of something that is still alive: a pain is deadened by medicine, a sound is deadened by thick curtains, a nerve is deadened by cold. Its modern sense of making something less intense follows naturally from that drift, with the original meaning of death fading into the background.

Synonyms: numbed, stifled, dulled, blunted, reduced

Antonyms: awakened, intensified, heightened, stimulated, activated