deadening

present participle and gerund of deadenform-ofgerundparticiple

• Until, of course, the war and its aftermath came to lay their deadening hand on all railway progress.
• So, how are we going to persuade the current government that command-and-control is a deadening leadership style which can never deliver the financial results of a liberated rail industry?

The process by which something is deadened.

• The structural theory doesn't only focus on the negations, repressions, disavowals, and deadenings of the ego in the face of its encounters within and without.

A forest clearing created by girdling the trees.