benumb

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English

Etymology

From be- +‎ numb.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: bē-nŭmʹ, IPA(key): /biˈnʌm/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: be‧numb
  • Rhymes: -ʌm

Verb

benumb (third-person singular simple present benumbs, present participle benumbing, simple past and past participle benumbed)

  1. (transitive) To make numb, as by cold or anesthetic.
  2. (transitive, figurative) To deaden, dull (the mind, faculties, etc.).
    • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
      [] If this law
      Of nature be corrupted through affection,
      And that great minds, of partial indulgence
      To their benumbed wills, resist the same,
      There is a law in each well-order’d nation
      To curb those raging appetites that are
      Most disobedient and refractory.
    • 1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XI”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. , volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: C Rivington, ; and J. Osborn, , →OCLC, page 18:
      I struggled, and trembled, and was so benumb’d with Terror, that I sunk down, not in a Fit, and yet not myself []
    • 1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 17, in Daniel Deronda, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:
      Sorrowful isolation had benumbed her sense of reality, and the power of distinguishing outward and inward was continually slipping away from her.
    • 2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, “Hermaphroditus”, in Middlesex, New York: Picador, page 483:
      Five nights a week, six hours a day, for the next four months—and, fortunately, never again—I made my living by exhibiting the peculiar way I am formed. The Clinic had prepared me for it, benumbing my sense of shame, and besides, I was desperate for money.

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