That these anti-novelistic tricks are all, in fact, novelistic tricks, often borrowed from the history of the novel, does not muffle the pleasure of watching this literary freedom in action.

NEWYORKER: Reality Effects

Is it my imagination or did the rise of expense-account restaurants purposely building-in conversation-evaporating high-volume noise levels (partly by not building in the architectural elements that muffle them) coincide with the market run-up to 2008?

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In effect, these new genes muffle or silence other genes.

FORBES: Scientists Ask: What Is A Gene, Anyway?