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What is "deepen"

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deepen
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
deepen
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a recession deepens (=becomes worse)
▪ Economists fear the recession may be deepening.
a worsening/deepening crisis
▪ The strikes came during a worsening economic crisis.
deepen/broaden an understanding
▪ It is hoped that the research will broaden our understanding of the disease.
gloom deepens (=people feel more sad)
▪ The party's gloom deepened as the election results came in.
the mystery deepens (=it becomes more difficult to understand)
▪ Why would he run away if he were not guilty? The mystery deepens.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
only
▪ Her father, yelling from the bleachers, only deepened her uncertainty.
when
▪ He looked at her with sardonic amusement which deepened when she quickly looked away.
▪ Because love deepens when it is expressed.
▪ Their difficulty deepened when Cameron was sent off.
■ NOUN
crisis
▪ As the crisis deepened, Bridges was in his last weeks as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury.
▪ As the financial crisis deepened, the ownership of the paper changed.
▪ As the foot and mouth crisis deepens, so our ideas and values about the countryside change.
frown
▪ His frown deepened, then transformed itself into a radiant grin.
▪ She reads to the end, the frown deepening on her face.
▪ When he came to his own seal, his frown would. deepen.
mystery
▪ She remains more of a mystery, so a deepening scandal has the potential to do more political damage.
recession
▪ Unemployment in Preston as well as nationally is rising steeply as the recession continues to deepen.
▪ The recession has deepened, the huge national debt has increased, the people's lot worsened.
▪ Outrage comes from the rest of the country as unemployment increases and the recession deepens.
▪ But as the recession deepened, no backers could be found for the scheme which had already cost over £1 million.
▪ As the recession has deepened, so greater attention has focused on the issue of the late payment of debt.
▪ If the advice is not heeded, he warns, the current recession may spread and deepen.
▪ Every week, up to four farmers kill themselves, and the numbers have increased as the recession in agriculture deepens.
▪ The recession deepened, fee competition intensified and the Warne Review was announced with its obvious threat to statutory registration.
understanding
▪ This provides experience of applying computing solutions in an organization and deepens students' understanding of the theoretical parts of the course.
▪ This also deepens their understanding of the pleasure and enjoyment provided by the media.
▪ Its explicitness clarifies and deepens interpretative understanding.
▪ In addition to this, students deepen their understanding of early literacy and a special study is made of bilingual under- fives.
■ VERB
continue
▪ His understanding of the world continues to deepen.
▪ Unemployment in Preston as well as nationally is rising steeply as the recession continues to deepen.
▪ Such risk-avoiding moves did not, however, stop them from continuing to deepen their involvement in the economy by other means.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ As she watched the nuns working among the sick and dying, her respect for them deepened.
▪ As the crisis deepened, it became clear that the government was losing control.
▪ Johnny tried to deepen his voice to sound like a grown-up.
▪ Some principals worry that the decision will deepen divisions between rich and poor schools.
▪ The agreement will deepen the firm's ties to Japan's electronics companies.
▪ The company's legal and financial problems are deepening.
▪ The natural fabric's color deepens over time.
▪ The recession may deepen still further.
▪ The river deepens five feet from the shore.
▪ Traveling allows young people to deepen their understanding of other cultures.
▪ With every new day, her despair only seemed to deepen.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And how would her husband regard this deepening commitment to a faith he did not fully share?
▪ As it deepens towards black, it assumes overtones of a superhuman sorrow.
▪ Each regime of control is boosted by deepening loops of feedback and information flow.
▪ Government measures to peg back inflation have deepened the recession.
▪ It didn't seem possible for her love to deepen and grow, but it did.
▪ The recession has deepened, the huge national debt has increased, the people's lot worsened.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Deepen

Deepen \Deep"en\, v. i. To become deeper; as, the water deepens at every cast of the lead; the plot deepens.

His blood-red tresses deepening in the sun.
--Byron.

Deepen

Deepen \Deep"en\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Deepened; p. pr. & vb. n. Deepening.]

  1. To make deep or deeper; to increase the depth of; to sink lower; as, to deepen a well or a channel.

    It would . . . deepen the bed of the Tiber.
    --Addison.

  2. To make darker or more intense; to darken; as, the event deepened the prevailing gloom.

    You must deepen your colors.
    --Peacham.

  3. To make more poignant or affecting; to increase in degree; as, to deepen grief or sorrow.

  4. To make more grave or low in tone; as, to deepen the tones of an organ.

    Deepens the murmur of the falling floods.
    --Pope.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
deepen

c.1600, from deep (adj.) + -en (1). Related: Deepened; deepening. The earlier verb had been simply deep, from Old English diepan.\n

Wiktionary
deepen

vb. 1 To make deep or deeper 2 To make darker or more intense; to darken 3 To make more poignant or affecting; to increase in degree 4 To make lower in tone 5 (context intransitive English) To become deeper 6 (context intransitive English) To become darker or more intense 7 (context intransitive English) To become lower in tone

WordNet
deepen

  1. v. make more intense, stronger, or more marked; "The efforts were intensified", "Her rudeness intensified his dislike for her"; "Potsmokers claim it heightens their awareness"; "This event only deepened my convictions" [syn: intensify, compound, heighten]

  2. become more intense; "The debate intensified"; "His dislike for raw fish only deepened in Japan" [syn: intensify]

  3. make deeper; "They deepened the lake so that bigger pleasure boats could use it"

  4. become deeper in tone; "His voice began to change when he was 12 years old"; "Her voice deepened when she whispered the password" [syn: change]

Usage examples of "deepen".

The clouds paled, turned rosy for a moment with the afterglow, then deepened into purple gloom.

The guests at the Albergo Monte Gazza peered at one another over dinner through a gradually deepening gloom, enlivened by occasional lurches towards complete darkness.

Her voice trailed off and Arra scowled out at the road, her frown deepening slightly at each slap of the windshield wipers.

As the evening deepened the quaintest noises began on every hand--noises so strange and bewildering that as I cowered down with my teeth chattering, and stared hard into the impenetrable, they could be likened to nothing but the crying of all the souls of dead things since the beginning.

At 1830 a blinker message from Chikuma served further to deepen the gloom in Nagara.

Dusk was deepening into night as a low, sprawling, palisaded building that could only be the caravanserai came into view ahead.

But the modern view, with its deepening insistence upon individuality and upon the significance of its uniqueness, steadily intensifies the value of freedom, until at last we begin to see liberty as the very substance of life, that indeed it is life, and that only the dead things, the choiceless things, live in absolute obedience to law.

He wore a chest-hugging, bronze T-shirt, that deepened the golden highlights in his eyes, black jeans that cleaved his male assets in all the right places.

Mr Cupples deepened both his annoyance and his grief at the membership of Robert Bruce.

Torches held by grinning brass gargoyles cast shadows that deepened the anguish in hopeless faces and darkened the evil glittering in the eyes of the legion of monsters that brought mankind to its knees.

The deep blue color darkened, deepened until he could see the need pulsing in her.

The kiss deepened with mutual urgency, and he slid his hands upward, stopping just under the swell of her breasts before he started another downward slide.

In profile, his frown deepened as he read her question on his translator.

In this way we make ourselves as vulnerable and receptive as possible to a renewed and deepened experience of the way our bodily being bodies forth the love that utters our feelings into being.

In yielding to this reverie, renewed and deepened desires to be one awakens within them.