Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Benumbed; numb; incapable of activity or sensibility; torpid; dull; dim.
  • noun A medicine that diminishes the exertion of the irritative motions.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Having no motion or activity; incapable of motion; benumbed; torpid.

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

  • adjective obsolete Having no motion or activity; benumbed; torpid.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin torpens, present participle of torpere to be numb.

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Examples

  • Lastly, to all this I would add that other chearful vehicle, light; which the gloomy and torpent north is so many months depriv’d of; the too long seclusion whereof is injurious to our exotics, kept in the conservatories, since however temper’d with heat, and duly refresh’d; they grow sickly, and languish without the admission of light as well as air, as I have frequently found.

    Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) Or A Discourse of Forest Trees John Evelyn 1663

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