Make vague or obscure or make (an image) less visible.

synonyms: damp, dampen.

Roget 158: be impotent etc. adj.; not have a leg to stand on.    vouloir rompre l'anguille au genou [Fr.], vouloir prendre la lune avec les dents [Fr.].    collapse, faint, swoon, fall into a swoon, drop; go by the board, go by the wayside; go up in smoke, end in smoke etc. (fail) 732.    render powerless etc. adj.; deprive of power; disable, disenable^†; disarm, incapacitate, disqualify, unfit, invalidate, deaden, cramp, tie the hands; double up, prostrate, paralyze, muzzle, cripple, becripple^†, maim, lame, hamstring, draw the teeth of; throttle, strangle, garrotte, garrote; ratten^†, silence, sprain, clip the wings of, put hors de combat [Fr.], spike the guns; take the wind out of one's sails, scotch the snake, put a spoke in one's wheel; break the neck, break the back; unhinge, unfit; put out of gear.    unman, unnerve, enervate; emasculate, castrate, geld, alter, neuter, sterilize, fix.    shatter, exhaust, weaken etc. 160.    ... show more

Roget 174: be moderate etc. adj.; keep within bounds, keep within compass; sober down, settle down; keep the peace, remit, relent, take in sail.    moderate, soften, mitigate, temper, accoy^†; attemper^†, contemper^†; mollify, lenify^†, dulcify^†, dull, take off the edge, blunt, obtund^†, sheathe, subdue, chasten; sober down, tone down, smooth down; weaken etc. 160; lessen etc. (decrease) 36; check palliate.    tranquilize, pacify, assuage, appease, swag, lull, soothe, compose, still, calm, calm down, cool, quiet, hush, quell, sober, pacify, tame, damp, lay, allay, rebate, slacken, smooth, alleviate, rock to sleep, deaden, smooth, throw cold water on, throw a wet blanket over, turn off; slake; curb etc. (restrain) 751; tame etc. (subjugate) 749; smooth over; pour oil on the waves, pour oil on the troubled waters; pour balm into, mattre de l'eau dans son vin [Fr.].    go out like a lamb, roar you as gently as any sucking dove" [Midsummer-Night's Dream]. ... show more

Cut a girdle around so as to kill by interrupting the circulation of water and nutrients.

synonym: girdle.

Make vapid or deprive of spirit.

Lessen the momentum or velocity of.

Become lifeless, less lively, intense, or active; lose life, force, or vigor.

Make less lively, intense, or vigorous; impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation:
— Deaden a sound.

synonym: blunt.

Roget 823: be insensible etc. adj.; have a rhinoceros hide; show insensibility etc. n.; not mind, not care, not be affected by; have no desire for etc. 866; have no interest in, feel no interest in, take no interest in; nil admirari [Lat.]; not care a straw for etc. (unimportance) 643; disregard etc. (neglect) 460; set at naught etc. (make light of) 483; turn a deaf ear to etc. (inattention) 458; vegetate.    render insensible, render callous; blunt, obtund^†, numb, benumb, paralyze, deaden, hebetate^†, stun, stupefy; brutify^†; brutalize; chloroform, anaesthetize^†, put under; assify^†.    inure; harden the heart; steel, caseharden, sear.    ... show more

Dutch: afstompen, vervlakken

Convert (metallic mercury) into a grey powder consisting of minute globules, as by shaking with chalk or fatty oil.