deadening adj : 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"- Edmund Burke; "tedious days on the train"; "the tiresome chirping of a cricket"- Mark Twain; "other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome" [syn: boring, dull, ho-hum, irksome, slow, tedious, tiresome, wearisome] n : the act of making something futile and useless (as by routine) [syn: stultification, constipation, impairment]

English

Verb

deadening

1. present participle of deaden

abatement, abating, allaying, allayment, alleviating, alleviation, alleviative, analgesia, analgesic, anesthesia, anesthetic, anesthetizing, anodyne, appeasement, assuagement, assuaging, assuasive, attenuation, attrition, balmy, balsamic, benumbing, blunting, calming, cathartic, chastening, cleansing, cushioning, dampening, damping, debilitation, demulcent, demulsion, devitalization, dilution, diminishing, diminishment, diminution, dulcification, dulling, ease, easement, easing, effemination, emollient, enervation, enfeeblement, evisceration, exhaustion, extenuation, falling-off, fatigue, hushing, inanition, languishment, leniency, lenitive, lessening, letdown, letup, lightening, loosening, lulling, mitigating, mitigation, mitigative, modulation, mollification, narcotic, numbing, pacification, pain-killing, palliation, palliative, purgative, quietening, quieting, reducing, reduction, relaxation, relaxing, relief, relieving, remedial, remedy, remission, salving, slackening, softening, soothing, stunning, stupefying, subduement, subduing, tempering, thinning, tranquilization, weakening