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.
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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
They had power to benumb every decent feeling in me.
From Blue Aloes Stories of South Africa by Cynthia Stockley
Few laws have ever been passed better calculated than this to harden the heart and benumb the conscience of every man who assists in its execution.
From Autographs for Freedom, Volume 2 (of 2) (1854) by Julia Griffiths
We would not employ the barbasco, that is to say, the roots of Piscidea erithryna and Jacquinia armillaris, which, when thrown into the pool, intoxicate or benumb these animals.
From Natural History in Anecdote Illustrating the nature, habits, manners and customs of animals, birds, fishes, reptiles, etc., etc., etc. by Various
But she replied: "Only in earlier years–but long ago it ceased to be so–did they make my eye-sockets burn and benumb my brain."
From Hesperus or Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days Vol. II A Biography by Jean Paul
And a humble suggestion for the icy, northwesterly breeze that so often benumbs New York City.
From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2013
After offering some Soviet advance brass a dinner at his canonry, complete with vintage port, he benumbs them with a conducted tour of his cathedral.
From Time Magazine Archive
What assaults the eye often benumbs the brain, but now all the networks are doing the same.
From Time Magazine Archive
From the arctics and antarctics which they explore, they bring a refrigeration that benumbs artistic sensibilities.
From Time Magazine Archive
The car reared upward—higher and higher it climbed to the accompaniment of the terrible crunching grind that proclaims undirected power and benumbs the brain with the horrid possibilities of energy uncontrolled.
From The Promise A Tale of the Great Northwest by James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx
Its importance may have been underestimated by a benumbed Supreme Court press, understandably focused on what is likely to be the Court’s decision.
From Slate ● Dec. 19, 2022
As friends and neighbors watch in silent awe, confused, benumbed, the father lowers the launcher and stage-growls the absolutely unnecessary: “It’s a boy.”
From Washington Post ● May 13, 2021
In the course of her Zoom interview with the Guardian, she also claims to feel like one of the characters in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, benumbed by a constant stream of media stimulation.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 6, 2020
"River of Fundament" was inspired by "Ancient Evenings," Norman Mailer's sprawlingly bad 1983 novel — 709 pages of benumbed egocentrism set in pharaonic Egypt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2015
No longer feeling any cold in his legs and arms nor on his face, he thought that the frost had benumbed him.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
I attended and can assure you that, contrary to the glamorously edited videos in the show, they were malfunctioning, formless, benumbing ordeals.
From The New Yorker ● May 22, 2017
Tate Modern's current show Exposed, on surveillance photography, feels intellectually threadbare and aesthetically benumbing.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 9, 2010
If the story line was somewhat benumbing, the dancing was dashing and vigorous.
From Time Magazine Archive
A distillation had been made of the benumbing repetition of bad news in order to show that one should not be numbed.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Clinic had prepared me for it, benumbing my sense of shame, and besides, I was desperate for money.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
