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benumb

   Also found in: Legal, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
be·numb  (b-nm)
tr.v. be·numbed, be·numb·ing, be·numbs
1. To make numb, especially by cold.
2. To make inactive; dull: "The anesthetic afternoon benumbs, sickens our senses" (Karl Shapiro). See Synonyms at daze.

[Middle English binomen, from past participle of binimen, to take away, from Old English beniman : be-, away; see be- + niman, to take; see numb.]

be·numbment n.

benumb [bɪˈnʌm]
vb (tr)
1. to make numb or powerless; deaden physical feeling in, as by cold
2. (usually passive) to make inactive; stupefy (the mind, senses, will, etc.)
benumbingly  adv
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Verb1.benumb - make numb or insensitive; "The shock numbed her senses"
desensitise, desensitize - cause not to be sensitive; "The war desensitized many soldiers"; "The photographic plate was desensitized"
Translations
benumb [bɪˈnʌm] VT (with cold) → entumecer; (= frighten, shock) → paralizar
benumb
vt
limbgefühllos machen; personbetäuben; (with cold also) → erstarren lassen; he was/his fingers were benumbed with colder war/seine Finger waren starr vor Kälte
(fig) mindbetäuben; (panic, experience etc)lähmen; benumbed by alcoholvom Alkohol benommen


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In spite of the certainty I had felt from that moment on the bridge at Prague, that Bertha would one day be my wife, my constitutional timidity and distrust had continued to benumb me, and the words in which I had sometimes premeditated a confession of my love, had died away unuttered.
But there were so many chances against them in all these cases, such as storms, to overset and founder them; rains and cold, to benumb and perish their limbs; contrary winds, to keep them out and starve them; that it must have been next to miraculous if they had escaped.
When the high cannot bring up the low to itself, it benumbs it, as man charms down the resistance of the lower animals.
 
 
 
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