benumb

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Invention is kept alive, and the mind is not suffered to fall into that drowsy stupidity, which, in a civilized society, seems to benumb the understanding of the people….

From Forbes • Aug. 26, 2014

And then we will no more be rack'd With inward striving, and demand Of all the thousand nothings of the hour Their stupefying power; Ah yes, and they benumb us at our call!

From Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold by Arnold, Matthew

With a nature like his the abrupt catastrophe did not benumb; it even stimulated; but it took the flavour out of many of his pursuits.

From Sir Walter Ralegh A Biography by Stebbing, W. (William)

"If only one did not have to think during the long periods of uncertainty and ignorance, and could somehow benumb the senses until the hours of darkness had passed!"

From Through these Eyes The courageous struggle to find meaning in a life stressed with cancer by Isaacson, Lauren Ann

Out of the untroubled surface rose the trunks of sickly looking and decayed trees, presenting amid the black and driving rain, a spectacle sufficient to chill and benumb the most manly heart.

From The Second War with England, Vol. 1 of 2 by Headley, Joel Tyler