desensitize

/'di:'sensitaiz/ Cách viết khác : (desensitize) /'di:'sensitaiz/

Thân thiện

The repeated exposure to loud noises can desensitize a person's hearing.

Definition

1. Verb:
   • To make less sensitive or reactive: To reduce or eliminate the normal emotional or physical response to something, often through repeated exposure.
   • To make non-reactive or less sensitive in a technical context: To treat a material (like photographic film) so it does not react to light or other stimuli.

Usage and Examples

• General Usage (Emotional/Physical):

  • The constant violence in the news can desensitize people to real suffering.
  • The doctor will desensitize the patient to the allergen through a series of injections.

• Technical/Scientific Usage:

  • The technician had to desensitize the photographic plate before developing it.

Advanced Usage

• "to become desensitized to something": To gradually lose one's sensitivity or emotional reaction to something due to frequent exposure.
  • After years in the emergency room, she became desensitized to the sight of blood.

Variants and Related Words

• Desensitization (noun): The process or result of making something less sensitive.
  • The desensitization program helped reduce his allergic reactions.
• Desensitizer (noun): An agent or substance that causes desensitization.
  • The chemical acts as a desensitizer for the nerve.

Synonyms

• Deaden: To make less sensitive or intense.
• Numb: To deprive of feeling or sensitivity.
• Blunt: To make less sharp or less intense.

Antonyms

• Sensitize: To make sensitive or more responsive.

Related Phrases

• Desensitize someone to something: The standard construction for this verb.
  • The goal is not to desensitize students to history, but to help them understand it critically.

Học thuật

Verb

1. make insensitive
   • His military training desensitized him
2. cause not to be sensitive
   • The war desensitized many soldiers
   • The photographic plate was desensitized

Từ đồng nghĩa

• desensitise