deafening

comparative more deafening · superlative most deafening

1. Loud enough to cause temporary or permanent hearing loss.

   With a deafening crash lightning strikes the ledge directly above us.

   1989 May, Uwe George, “Venezuela's Islands in Time”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 538

   2 more examples

   At that instant, Eragon's back ruptured in an explosion of agony so intense, he experienced it with all five senses: as a deafening, crashing waterfall of sound; a metallic taste that coated his tongue; an acrid, eye-watering stench in his nostrils, redolent of vinegar; pulsing colors; and, above all, the feeling that Durza had just laid open his back.

   2005, Christopher Paolini, “The Nature of Evil”, in Eldest, page 372

   But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.

   2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43

2. excessiveVery loud.

   At the end of a frantic first 45 minutes, there was still time for Charlie Adam to strike the bar from 20 yards before referee Atkinson departed to a deafening chorus of jeering from Everton's fans.

   2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0 - 2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of deafen

plural deafenings

1. countableuncountablearchitecturepugging
2. countableuncountableThe process by which something is deafened.

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

   2012, Gary Taylor, Trish Thomas Henley, The Oxford Handbook of Thomas Middleton, page 338