Definition of "muffle" []

• To wrap up, as in a blanket or shawl, for warmth, protection, or secrecy. (verb-transitive)
• To wrap or pad in order to deaden the sound: muffled the drums. (verb-transitive)
• To deaden (a sound): The sand muffled the hoofbeats. (verb-transitive)
• To make vague or obscure: "His message was so muffled by learning and 'artiness'” ( Walter Blair). (verb-transitive)
• To repress; stifle. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "His muffle was a wreck, and such by degrees became the condition of all his apparatus."
• "And all that means is that it's an earthquake, but you have 230 miles of dirt or crust to kind of muffle it a bit."
• "Society-wide measures of religious behavior muffle portentous change that may be occurring at the younger edge of the population, so social prognosticators just like commercial advertisers focus on trends among young adults, trying to discern which aspects of behavior are what they are because the youths are young, and which aspects are what they are because of when they are young."