different between deafen vs deafening

English

Etymology

deaf +? -en (verbal suffix), compare Middle English deven, deaven (“to make deaf”), Old English ?d?afian (“to deafen”), Dutch verdoven (“to stupefy, deafen”), German betäuben (“to stun, stupefy, deafen”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?f?n/
• Rhymes: -?f?n

Verb

deafen (third-person singular simple present deafens, present participle deafening, simple past and past participle deafened)

1. (transitive) To make deaf, either temporarily or permanently.
2. (transitive) To make soundproof.

   to deafen a wall or a floor

3. (transitive, rare, dialectal, sometimes figuratively) To stun, as with noise.
   • 1855, Macaulay

     Racine left the ground […] deafened, dazzled and tired to death.

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d?f?n??(?)/

Adjective

deafening (comparative more deafening, superlative most deafening)

1. Loud enough to cause temporary or permanent hearing loss.
2. (hyperbolic) Very loud.

Derived terms

• deafening silence

Related terms

• deaf
• deafen

Translations

Verb

deafening

1. present participle of deafen

Noun

deafening (countable and uncountable, plural deafenings)

1. (architecture) pugging
2. The process by which something is deafened.
   • 2012, Gary Taylor, Trish Thomas Henley, The Oxford Handbook of Thomas Middleton (page 338)

     Film and dance theory offer a productive vocabulary for considering the effects of these mutings and deafenings.