numb

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“
He pictures this guy, cutting himself a length of rope with fingers already half-numb from the Creep, walking along the street looking for a place to hang himself and stopping right here and thinking,

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. adjective Deprived of the power to feel or move normally; benumbed: toes numb with cold; too numb with fear to cry out.
  2. adjective Emotionally unresponsive; indifferent: numb to yet another appeal.
  3. transitive and intransitive verb To make or become numb.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • There is a comfortable wistfulness about them and their knack for conjuring the numb, almost euphoric resignation that occurs before one freezes to death on a glacier made entirely of frozen hipster ex-girlfriends. —  Austinist
  • "My whole left side was numb, and then I knew something was wrong," Andrew recalled. —  News from www.thesunchronicle.com
  • "I just was so numb, and I wasn't in touch with it," she said. —  Wounded Bird
  • The first $75 billion was shocking, and now people are just numb -- another few trillion? —  Village Voice - The most recent 10 stories
  • Former John Marshall Football Coach Kevin Adams says he's numb, and still in disbelief over Corey Smith's disappearance, "I haven't really dealt with my emotions yet."
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This word has been looked up 186 times.

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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

daze ·  speechless ·  unable ·  breathless ·  dizzy ·  limp ·  helpless ·  dull ·  overwhelm ·  blank ·  icy ·  lifeless

Used in the same contextWord Family

numb:   numbing ·  numbed
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English nome, variant of nomin, past participle of nimen, to seize, from Old English niman; see nem- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English num, (the b in numb, as in limb, being excrescent), from Middle English name, nomen, numen, taken, seized, deprived of sensation, from Anglo-Saxon numen, past participle of niman, take; ef. beniman, present participle benumen, take away, deprive of sensation, benumb: see nim.
  2. Early modern English num; from Middle English nomen, make numb, from nome, numb: see numb, adjective
 

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/nəm/
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