benumb

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

But we, my love!—doth a like spell benumb Our hearts, our voices?—must we too be dumb?

From Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold by Matthew Arnold

The action brought about by its use is simply to benumb the nervous activity and interfere with the natural action of the system to throw off the poison, which is expressed by the chill.

From Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why What Medical Writers Say by Martha Meir Allen

A lethargy seemed to take hold of her and benumb her with an ever greater fear.

From The Comedienne by Edmund Obecny

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 W. (William) Stebbing

And a humble suggestion for the icy, northwesterly breeze that so often benumbs New York City.

From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2013

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

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

He tempts men to the indulgence of appetite or to some other form of self-gratification, and thus benumbs their sensibilities, so that they fail to hear the very things which they most need to learn.

From The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan by Ellen Gould Harmon White

Steinem spoke explicitly about pushing the women’s movement beyond its initial concerns—essentially, the benumbed, unfulfilled flourishing of white middle-class housewives like her own mother.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

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

He continued to swim in Dumbledore’s wake, the tips of his benumbed fingers brushing the rough, wet rock.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling

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

Instead of that benumbing, step-by-step chronology to which so many earnest biographers undiscriminatingly consign everything from laundry bills to emotional crises, Edel weaves back and forth in time and subject like a novelist.

From Time Magazine Archive

If the story line was somewhat benumbing, the dancing was dashing and vigorous.

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