The Collaborative International Dictionary
Muffle \Muf"fle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Muffled; p. pr. & vb. n. Muffling.] [Cf. F. moufle a mitten, LL. muffula, OD. moffel a muff. See Muff.]
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To wrap up in something that conceals or protects; to wrap, as the face and neck, in thick and disguising folds; hence, to conceal or cover the face of; to envelop; to inclose; -- often with up.
--South.The face lies muffled up within the garment.
--Addison.He muffled with a cloud his mournful eyes.
--Dryden.Muffled up in darkness and superstition.
--Arbuthnot. To prevent seeing, or hearing, or speaking, by wraps bound about the head; to blindfold; to deafen.
To wrap or fit with something that dulls or deadens the sound of; as, to muffle the strings of a drum, or that part of an oar which rests in the rowlock; to muffle the exhaust of a motor vehicle.
Wiktionary
n. (context mostly in the plural English) That which muffles; heavy clothing. vb. (present participle of muffle English)
Usage examples of "muffling".
Quickly assembled, it was effective for seven shots before the glass wool lost its muffling power.
The shot had come from the dark ahead of him, a silencer muffling both the sound and the muzzle flash, aided by the surf and the gloom.
He hammered it home with the heel of his hand, muffling the draft to a small, cold seep, then bent to retrieve his fallen papers.
T-shirt and he was pulling it off over her head, muffling her giggles.
He had such a hold over his emotions, and the muffling effect of the dark hold muted his voice just enough, that Zacharias could not guess how he felt.
With a thud, the side door slammed into place, muffling the sounds from outside.
As if a muffling blanket had dropped down around them, the hiss of burning oil became the only sound.
Snow lay at least half a foot thick everywhere in the forest, muffling sound.
There came a shift finally when the three watchers could offer no more criticisms, and Kator himself no longer felt the touch of the mufflings about his body for the unnatural thing it was.
Beyond stretched immense emptiness, and in a separate corner of this, not fifty feet from where Kator stood, a crew of five natives in green one-piece mufflings were dismounting the governor of a phase-shift drive from one of the ships, which had been taken out of the ship and lowered to the floor here, apparently for servicing.
For a moment he felt a wave of despair that the clumsy mufflings hampering him would make the feat impossible.
The soft drum still throbbed its haunting rhythm, but it was louder now, as though mufflings had been removed.
Signals were relayed from the center by platoon officers, and each soldier carefully removed the mufflings and strappings from his armor and the armor of his horse.
But in the afternoon the pace slowed somewhat, and the strain began to tell upon Haluin's hardworking shoulders, aching from the constant weight and endlessly repeated stress, and the cold as evening approached numbed his hands on the grips of his crutches, in spite of their mufflings of woolen cloth.
But in the afternoon the pace slowed somewhat, and the strain began to tell upon Haluin’s hardworking shoulders, aching from the constant weight and endlessly repeated stress, and the cold as evening approached numbed his hands on the grips of his crutches, in spite of their mufflings of woolen cloth.