muffle

«muffle» in Mova's school dictionary: to make it quieter and less clear, for example by… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (muffle, muffles, muffled, muffling); noun (a muffle — rare)

meaning for a pupil

1) To muffle a sound is to make it quieter and less clear, for example by covering it. tree →

2) To muffle someone or something up is to wrap them in warm clothes or cloth. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons on sound, materials like foam, cloth and egg boxes muffle sound by absorbing vibrations. In stories muffled voices come through a wall or muffled footsteps in snow make a scene mysterious. Phrases: «muffled voices», «muffle the sound», «muffled up against the cold».

examples

• The thick snow muffled our footsteps. tree →
• We heard muffled voices through the wall. tree →
• She muffled her giggles with a pillow. tree →
• We tested which material muffles sound best. tree →
• The children were muffled up in scarves and hats. tree →
• Car mufflers (US) make engines quieter. tree →

note

Past form «muffled». Related: «muffler» (a scarf, UK old-fashioned; a car exhaust silencer, US). Muffling does not stop sound completely; it reduces it.

In the corpora

• Owl wing feathers have comb-like front edges, soft fringes and a velvety surface that muffle the sound of flying.
• Your dog is fast asleep on the rug, but its paws are paddling, its lips twitch and it gives tiny muffled woofs.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «muffle» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.