narcotize

Actually the soaps do not kill bacteria, they permanently "narcotize" the germs.

From Time Magazine Archive

His grandfather was a conservative bourgeois of a superior type, who was the author of treatises designed to narcotize the forces of rebellion of his time.

From The Glands Regulating Personality by Louis Berman M.D.

They appeared to me, though, as if pursuing something beyond Gain, which should narcotize or stimulate them to forget that man's life was a vain going to and fro.

From The Morgesons by Elizabeth Stoddard

You may narcotize us with the sedative of your content.

From The Torch Bearer by Reina Melcher Marquis

Giving, giving, eternal giving is bound to narcotize into sodden self-satisfaction, or at last to rouse to protest an awakening soul.

From Child Versus Parent Some Chapters on the Irrepressible Conflict in the Home by Stephen Wise

The audience necessary to sustain original and ambitious work is narcotized by algorithms or distracted by doomscrolling.

From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2023

Alongside the legendary Port Arthur duo UGK, rappers like Z-Ro, Lil’ Keke, Lil’ Troy, Paul Wall, and Lil’ Flip concocted a narcotized bang and sparkle that one can still hear in hip-hop.

From The New Yorker ● May 20, 2019

Sometimes it seems to me that young people are, indeed, entirely too quiet, too narcotized by gadgets, games and irrelevancies to notice the world is going to heck around them.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 14, 2014

We are a lazy and narcotized culture and it is hard to not just go to sleep.

From Salon ● May 10, 2013

He was content to wait until the fever grew, and the poisons of the blood narcotized the dulled brain into indifference, and then goaded it into delirium.

From Never-Fail Blake by Arthur Stringer

His treatments included electroconvulsive therapy, during which doctors use electric currents to spark a brain seizure, and also narcotizing drugs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2021

Among ordinary citizens, drones seem to have had a narcotizing effect, deadening the impulse to reflect on the harm they cause.

From New York Times ● Jun. 13, 2018

This deeply autobiographical novel recounts growing up gay in rural France, where the men and women scuff and strain against economic morbidity, class invisibility and narcotizing boredom.

From New York Times ● May 25, 2017

For the NFL, the powerful narcotizing effects of gamification don’t stop there.

From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2013

The narcotizing spell had fallen suddenly from him again, and life and his future fortunes looked uninterestingly grey.

From Blue Aloes Stories of South Africa by Cynthia Stockley