Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Lacking physical sensation: Describes a part of the body that has lost the ability to feel, often due to cold, injury, or pressure.
   • Devoid of emotion or feeling: Describes a state of being emotionally unresponsive, shocked, or indifferent.

2. Verb:

   • To cause a loss of sensation: To make a part of the body lose physical feeling.
   • To dull emotions or senses: To make someone less able to feel emotions or react, often due to shock or trauma.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective:

  • My fingers were numb after holding the ice.
  • She felt numb with grief after hearing the tragic news.
  • He was numb to their criticism after hearing it so many times.

• Verb:

  • The dentist will numb your gum before the procedure.
  • The sheer horror of the event numbed his mind.

Advanced Usage

• "numb to something": To be unresponsive or indifferent to a particular feeling or situation due to overexposure or shock.
  • Years of working in the emergency room had made him numb to scenes of injury.
• "numb with something": To be so affected by a strong physical or emotional state (like cold, fear, or shock) that one loses sensation or feeling.
  • They were numb with cold after waiting in the snow.

Variants and Related Words

• Numbly (adverb): In a numb manner; without feeling or sensation.
  • He stared numbly at the letter.
• Numbness (noun): The condition of being numb.
  • The numbness in her foot began to fade.

Synonyms

• Adjective (physical): Insensible, deadened, asleep, unfeeling.
• Adjective (emotional): Unfeeling, indifferent, unresponsive, stunned, dazed.
• Verb: Deaden, desensitize, stun, paralyze, anesthetize.

Related Phrasal Verbs/Constructions

(The word "numb" is not commonly used in phrasal verb constructions. Its meaning is typically conveyed directly or with prepositions like "to" or "with.")

Related Idioms

• Numb and number: A play on words from the phrase "more and more," used to describe a state of increasing emotional desensitization.
  • After the third corporate layoff announcement, the staff felt numb and number.

Adjective

1. so frightened as to be unable to move; stunned or paralyzed with terror; petrified
   • too numb with fear to move
2. (followed by `to') not showing human feeling or sensitivity; unresponsive
   • passersby were dead to our plea for help
   • numb to the cries for mercy
3. lacking sensation
   • my foot is asleep
   • numb with cold

Verb

1. make numb or insensitive
   • The shock numbed her senses