Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of benumb.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word benumbing.

Examples

  • That of body is nothing but a kind of benumbing laziness, intermitting exercise, which, if we may believe [1547] Fernelius, causeth crudities, obstructions, excremental humours, quencheth the natural heat, dulls the spirits, and makes them unapt to do any thing whatsoever.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • When she returned perhaps their lives would readjust themselves -- but for the moment he longed for some kind of benumbing influence, something that should give relief to the dull daily ache of feeling her so near and yet so inaccessible.

    The Custom of the Country Edith Wharton 1899

  • In a benumbing turn of events, Abe Foxman, chief of the influential Anti-Defamation League and opponent of Park51 -- the so-called Ground Zero Mosque -- gave a speech this week decrying the rising culture of anti-Islam bigotry.

    Adam Chandler: Prominent Park51 Opponent: Stop Anti-Muslim Bigotry Adam Chandler 2010

  • In a benumbing turn of events, Abe Foxman, chief of the influential Anti-Defamation League and opponent of Park51 -- the so-called Ground Zero Mosque -- gave a speech this week decrying the rising culture of anti-Islam bigotry.

    Adam Chandler: Prominent Park51 Opponent: Stop Anti-Muslim Bigotry Adam Chandler 2010

  • Adult novella, a hugely distended tale within the network of tales that makes up the book, 90 pages long, as benumbing for an adult to read as almost any story written for the Young Adult market, whose products are about as close to genuine fiction as megachurches are to monasteries where silence is observed.

    Scientifiction 2010

  • Adult novella, a hugely distended tale within the network of tales that makes up the book, 90 pages long, as benumbing for an adult to read as almost any story written for the Young Adult market, whose products are about as close to genuine fiction as megachurches are to monasteries where silence is observed.

    January 2008 2008

  • Adult novella, a hugely distended tale within the network of tales that makes up the book, 90 pages long, as benumbing for an adult to read as almost any story written for the Young Adult market, whose products are about as close to genuine fiction as megachurches are to monasteries where silence is observed.

    Spit Take 2008

  • Adult novella, a hugely distended tale within the network of tales that makes up the book, 90 pages long, as benumbing for an adult to read as almost any story written for the Young Adult market, whose products are about as close to genuine fiction as megachurches are to monasteries where silence is observed.

    Spit Take 2008

  • Thou, my Alan, wilt treat as timidity this passive acquiescence, which has sunk down on me like a benumbing torpor; but if thou hast remembered by what visions my couch was haunted, and dost but think of the probability that I am in the vicinity, perhaps under the same roof with

    Redgauntlet 2008

  • The iron handle completed the benumbing and freezing of her wet and tiny hands; she was forced to halt from time to time, and each time that she did so, the cold water which splashed from the pail fell on her bare legs.

    Les Miserables 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.