numb Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb make numb or insensitive
    benumb; blunt; dull.
    • The shock numbed her senses
  2. adjective satellite lacking sensation
    benumbed; asleep.
    • my foot is asleep
    • numb with cold
  3. adjective satellite (followed by `to') not showing human feeling or sensitivity; unresponsive
    dead.
    • passersby were dead to our plea for help
    • numb to the cries for mercy
  4. adjective satellite so frightened as to be unable to move; stunned or paralyzed with terror; petrified
    • too numb with fear to move

WordNet

Numb adjective
Etymology
OE. nume, nome, prop., seized, taken, p. p. of nimen to take, AS. niman, p. p. numen. *7. See Nimble, Nomad, and cf. Benumb.
Definitions
  1. Enfeebled in, or destitute of, the power of sensation and motion; rendered torpid; benumbed; insensible; as, the fingers or limbs are numb with cold. "A stony image, cold and numb." Shak.
  2. Producing numbness; benumbing; as, the numb, cold night. Obs. Shak.
Numb transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Numbed ; present participle & verbal noun Numbing
Definitions
  1. To make numb; to deprive of the power of sensation or motion; to render senseless or inert; to deaden; to benumb; to stupefy.
    For lazy winter numbs the laboring hand. Dryden.
    Like dull narcotics, numbing pain. Tennyson.

Webster 1913