<p><strong>Verb (used with object)</strong></p><ul><li>to make less sensitive, active, energetic, or forcible; weaken: to deaden sound; to deaden the senses; to deaden the force of a blow.</li><li>Synonyms: dull, numb, lessen, diminish, blunt</li><li>to lessen the velocity of; retard: to deaden the headway of a ship.</li><li>to make impervious to sound, as a floor.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used without object)</strong></p><ul><li>to become dead.</li></ul>