Loading page
say it: DED-uh-ning
deadening is a noun and adjective meaning "the act of making something futile and useless (as by routine)". It carries 2 recorded senses.
the act of making something futile and useless (as by routine)
so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
“a boring evening with uninteresting people”
“the deadening effect of some routine tasks”
“a dull play”
“his competent but dull performance”
“a ho-hum speaker who couldn't capture their attention”
“what an irksome task the writing of long letters is”
“tedious days on the train”
“the tiresome chirping of a cricket”
“other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for deadening come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.