💤 To dull 🔇 To muffle ⚗️ To powder mercury

to deaden

9.9

To change liquid mercury into a grey powder by shaking it with chalk or oil

verb
/ˈdɛdən/

Archaic

: deshacer

Chemists sometimes deaden mercury by shaking it vigorously with chalk.

Examples

In the laboratory, he carefully deadened the mercury before proceeding with the next step.
They used chalk to deaden the mercury.
To improve safety, the procedure includes instructions on how to deaden metallic mercury.
The chemist deadened the mercury successfully.
In the lab, the researchers deaden mercury by mixing it with chalk to create a fine powder.
He demonstrated how to deaden metallic mercury using a simple shaking method with chalk.
To ensure safety, it is essential to deaden mercury accurately before any further experiments.

Surface Forms

deaden infinitive

deadened past

deadened past participle

deadening present participle

deadens third person singular

Morphology

deaden = dead (opaque) = dead + en

Although morphologically regular ('dead' + '-en'), this technical chemical meaning (treating mercury) is specialized and not derivable from the everyday sense of 'dead'.

Etymology

Deaden again uses dead + -en, and a helpful way to remember the special chemical use is to think of it as 'making the metal dead' so it stops being active. In this sense, to deaden mercury is to turn it into a dull, less active powder, which is why the word fits this lab step.