muffle

State said China had used a technique known as decoupling to muffle the register and evade detection.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 22, 2026

I watched as the woman cuffed the phone receiver, attempting, ironically, to muffle the private information she was giving to a 13-year-old.

From Slate ● Dec. 12, 2023

But Mariam Lambert, a 39-year-old who said Nahel was a friend of her son, stressed the pressure of feeling that she and others, including fellow Muslims, had to muffle their identity.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 5, 2023

How do we filter those so that we're getting the good sensory experiences and somehow put a muzzle muffle on ones that give us stress and anxiety?

From Salon ● May 4, 2023

Perhaps he appeared to be comforting me, but he was only trying to muffle my noise, which couldn’t be muffled.

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine

Mr. Orhan offsets the novel’s magical realism with plainspoken prose that muffles Dilara’s increasingly volatile desires.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026

The visible clutter sets off a contagious, slightly embarrassed giggle, which she muffles with her hands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2025

The design of hearing aids muffles or blocks almost all of the natural unamplified sounds that stream into your ear canal.

From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2024

Gestational diabetes most commonly occurs during the third trimester of pregnancy when a woman’s body naturally muffles insulin signals, sparking labor difficulties for the woman and long-term afflictions for a newborn baby.

From Washington Times ● May 31, 2023

The noise around me muffles, and the image in my mind of the five thousand dollars starts to waver until it finally blurs into something I no longer recognize.

From "Warcross" by Marie Lu

Full of sorrow and restraint, the opening verses are entombed by muffled synths before Liene explodes into an operatic wail of catharsis in the dying moments.

From BBC ● May 8, 2026

Several muffled booms were heard in the distance.

From Barron's ● Mar. 10, 2026

On the Alto K98M, that click-clackiness is muffled by a rubbery internal gasket surrounding the keys.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 23, 2025

Given a chance to address the court, Girardi spoke in a soft, muffled voice, blaming poor accounting and insisting he had not profited personally.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2025

Heavy curtains and thick carpet muffled the sounds from the train wheels.

From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow

"But a quantum computer acts like noise-canceling headphones that compare combinations of answers, amplifying the right ones while muffling the wrong ones."

From Science Daily ● Feb. 2, 2026

He dropped his face in his hands, muffling his voice.

From BBC ● Nov. 30, 2024

The strings’ opening melody in the Rachmaninoff had Romantic grandeur and beguiling translucence, blanketing but not muffling the piano’s arpeggios with gauzy tone.

From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2024

In front of Eirik Johnson’s photo diptychs, you wonder: Does snow — a thick, muffling blanket devoid of color — obscure or reveal?

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 20, 2023

Her mother pulled her swiftly forward, muffling her mouth against her breast.

From "Tiger, Tiger" by Lynne Reid Banks