numb
- 1Unable to feel physical sensation in a part of the body, as from cold, pressure, or an anesthetic.
Her toes went numb during the hike up the snowy ridge.
He sat so long that his left leg became completely numb.
Similardeadened, insensible
Note
The bodily sense sits at the root of the word, which began as the past participle of nim, "to take": a numb hand was one taken, seized, as by cold or long kneeling. The b was added later and has never been pronounced, so numb rhymes with thumb. Its comparative, number, is spelled exactly like the counting word but said without the b.
- 2Emotionally unable to feel or respond in the normal way, typically following shock or grief.
Survivors of the crash described feeling numb in the weeks that followed.
She was so numb with grief that the words barely registered.
Similarstunned
Note
Here what has shut down is feeling, not nerves, and the adjective takes two constructions. Numb with names the cause (numb with shock, numb with boredom). Numb to names what no longer reaches you, as when Nellie McClung wrote in 1915 that we "grow a little bit numb to human misery." In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood it stands beside dazed, the blankness that follows violence.
- 3To cause a part of the body, or a person's feelings, to lose the power of sensation.
Doctors numb the area before stitching a deep cut.
Years of loss had numbed him to other people's pain.
Similarbenumb
Note
The everyday transitive verb, used alike for dentistry and for grief: novocaine numbs a tooth, and bad news can leave someone numbed by the shock. Benumb is its longer synonym. John Marston's spelling numd, written around 1600, shows the word without the silent b described under the bodily adjective.
- 4To gradually lose the power of physical sensation, especially from cold or prolonged pressure.
Fingers numb fast when the temperature drops below freezing.
Her legs numbed after sitting cross-legged for an hour.
Note
In the intransitive use, a body part numbs by itself: "once more his feet began to numb… they numbed," Arthur Murray Chisholm wrote in 1919. The participle is easily misread. In numbing fingers the fingers are going numb, but in a numbing cold the cold does the numbing. It is the same -ing form, intransitive in one phrase and causative in the other.
- 5To reduce the intensity of a feeling such as pain, grief, or fear.
Painkillers can numb the ache but won't fix the injury.
Time slowly numbed the sharp grief of losing her brother.
Similardull
Oppositeintensify
Note
Here the object is the feeling itself, not the person or body that has it: you numb pain, terror or grief. Alcohol and painkillers are the usual agents. In Elizabeth Gaskell's "The Grey Woman" (1861), the narrator finds one sensation dulling another: she is "thankful for the pain, which helped to numb my terror."
- 6To dull the mind or mental faculties, making them less sharp or alert.
The endless paperwork numbed his judgment over time.
Constant noise can numb the senses until you stop noticing it.
Similardull
Oppositesharpen
Note
What gets dulled is a faculty: the brain, the senses, a sense of smell. The verb can take to for what is shut out. Cory Doctorow's narrator in Eastern Standard Tribe (2004) describes a stench that "gradually numbed my nose to all other scents." The hunger and fatigue that "numbed his brain" in Saki's "The Hounds of Fate" show the slower, wearing kind.
- 7Dull-witted or stupid; lacking quickness of mind.
Anyone numb enough to trust that scam deserves a stern warning.
He gave such a numb reply that everyone stared in disbelief.
Note
A Maine usage, and a trap for outsiders: numb here means slow-witted, much as dumb does. Away from that regional speech, listeners will hear the emotional meaning or the bodily one instead, so "a numb reply" may sound dazed rather than stupid. It is safest kept for writing that renders Maine voices.
Less common meaning
- 8Producing numbness; causing a loss of physical sensation.
A numb chill spread from the frozen ground into every limb.
The numb venom of the creature deadened the wound before pain could rise.
Note
Shakespeare's numb could be active. In Richard III the "numb cold night" is the night that numbs, not one that has lost feeling. That causing use is obsolete. Modern English hands the job to the participle, as in a numbing cold or a numbing wind, while the plain adjective keeps only the state of feeling nothing.
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Origin
This word comes from the past participle of 'nim' ('to take'), and is related to German 'benommen' ('dazed, numb') and Old Norse 'numinn'. The final 'b' was added later; it was never pronounced and was not part of the original word.