Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state of being numb; that state of a living body in which it has not the power of feeling, as when paralytic or chilled by cold: torpidity; torpor.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The condition of being numb; that state of a living body in which it loses, wholly or in part, the power of feeling or motion.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Absent or reduced
sensitivity tocutaneous stimulation. - noun Inability or reduced ability to experience
emotion .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun partial or total lack of sensation in a part of the body; a symptom of nerve damage or dysfunction
- noun the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Long enough continued it will even produce that permanent insensibility which we call numbness, and a little longer, muscular as well as sensational paralysis.
Green Tea 2003
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Long enough continued it will even produce that permanent insensibility which we call numbness, and a little longer, muscular as well as sensational paralysis.
Green Tea; Mr. Justice Harbottle Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 1843
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The numbness is described as if a part of the body is “asleep”.
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The viewer may become so over-stimulated that a certain numbness can take hold, limiting emotional penetration.
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The one obvious difference between these two moments was that the former left me awash in numbness and confusion.
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There is a certain numbness and acceptance of death carried by the townsfolk.
Fiction Review: Jason Sanford's "The Ships Like Clouds Risen by Their Rain" wendigomountain 2008
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In this losing proposition, you trade short-term numbness for long-term grief.
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She achieves a certain numbness that makes you wonder what's really going on inside her head
Second Full Trailer for Stephenie Meyer's Twilight « FirstShowing.net 2008
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Execution … exaltation … That certain numbness setting in again … Norbert Blei
tadeusz rozewicz | what happens « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground 2007
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Right now, numbness is being replaced by magical thinking.
Think Progress » “One of the Worst Abandonments of Americans on American Soil Ever” 2005
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