Numb

• POS: Adjective, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Numb, a. [OE. nume, nome, prop., seized, taken, p. p. of nimen to take, AS. niman, p. p. numen. √7. See Nimble, Nomad, and cf. Benumb.].

•  Enfeebled in, or destitute of, the power of sensation and motion; rendered torpid; benumbed; insensible; as, the fingers or limbs are numb with cold.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  Producing numbness; benumbing; as, the numb, cold night.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

Numb, v. t. 

 To make numb; to deprive of the power of sensation or motion; to render senseless or inert; to deaden; to benumb; to stupefy.  [1913 Webster]
"For lazy winter numbs the laboring hand."  [1913 Webster]
"Like dull narcotics, numbing pain."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Numb, adj. & v.
--adj. (often foll. by with) deprived of feeling or the power of motion (numb with cold).
--v.tr.
1 make numb.
2 stupefy, paralyse.

Idiom

numb-fish = electric ray.

Derivative

numbly adv. numbness n.

Etymology

ME nome(n) past part. of nim take: for -b cf. THUMB

THESAURUS

Numb

KO, Laodicean, Olympian, abate, allay, alleviate, aloof, anesthetize, anesthetized, apathetic, appease, asleep, assuage, bedaze, benumb, benumbed, besot, bite, blah, blase, blunt, bored, callous, casual, chill, chloroform, coldcock, comatose, cushion, cut, dead, deaden, deaden the pain, deadened, debilitated, desensitize, desensitized, detached, diminish, disinterested, dope, dopey, dormant, droopy, drug, drugged, dull, ease, ease matters, enervated, etherize, exanimate, foment, freeze, frost, frostbite, give relief, go through, heartless, heavy, hebetudinous, hopeless, immobilize, impassible, imperceptive, impercipient, in a stupor, inanimate, incurious, indifferent, inert, insensate, insensible, insensitive, insentient, insouciant, jaded, kayo, knock out, knock senseless, knock stiff, knock unconscious, lackadaisical, languid, languorous, lay, lay out, leaden, lessen, lethargic, lifeless, listless, lull, lumpish, mitigate, mollify, moribund, mull, narcotize, nip, nonchalant, numbed, obdurate, obtund, obtuse, pad, palliate, palsy, paralyze, passive, penetrate, phlegmatic, pierce, pluckless, pooped, poultice, pour balm into, pour oil on, put to sleep, reduce, refrigerate, relieve, remote, resigned, salve, sated, senseless, slack, slacken, slake, sleepy, slow, sluggish, soften, somnolent, soothe, soporific, spiritless, spunkless, stagnant, stagnating, stoic, stultified, stun, stupe, stupefied, stupefy, subdue, supine, thick-skinned, thick-witted, torpid, uncaring, unconcerned, unconscious, unfeeling, unfelt, uninterested, unperceptive, vegetable, vegetative, wan, weary, withdrawn, world-weary

ROGET THESAURUS

Numb

Insensibility

VB be insensible, have a rhinoceros hide, show insensibility, not mind, not care, not be affected by, have no desire for, have no interest in, feel no interest in, take no interest in, nil admirari, not care a straw for, disregard, set at naught, turn a deaf ear to, vegetate, render insensible, render callous, blunt, obtund, numb, benumb, paralyze, deaden, hebetate, stun, stupefy, brutify, brutalize, chloroform, anaesthetize, put under, assify, inure, harden the heart, steel, caseharden, sear.

Physical Insensibility

N insensibility, physical insensibility, obtuseness, palsy, paralysis, paraesthesia, anaesthesia, sleep, hemiplegia, motor paralysis, vegetable state, coma, anaesthetic agent, opium, ether, chloroform, chloral, nitrous oxide, laughing gas, exhilarating gas, protoxide of nitrogen, refrigeration, insensible, unfeeling, senseless, impercipient, callous, thick- skinned, pachydermatous, hard, hardened, case hardened, proof, obtuse, dull, anaesthetic, comatose, paralytic, palsied, numb, dead.

Numbness

N numbness, anaesthesia, pins and needles, numb, benumbed, deadened, intangible, impalpable, (2) Heat.

Cold

N cold, coldness, frigidity, inclemency, fresco, winter, depth of winter, hard winter, Siberia, Nova Zembla, wind- chill factor, ice, snow, snowflake, snow crystal, snow drift, sleet, hail, hailstone, rime, frost, hoar frost, white frost, hard frost, sharp frost, barf, glaze, lolly, icicle, thick-ribbed ice, fall of snow, heavy fall, iceberg, icefloe, floe berg, glacier, nev_ee, serac, pruina, freezing mixture, dry ice, liquid nitrogen, liquid helium, chilliness, chill, shivering, goose skin, horripilation, rigor, chattering of teeth, numbness, frostbite, cold, cool, chill, chilly, icy, gelid, frigid, algid, fresh, keen, bleak, raw, inclement, bitter, biting, niveous, cutting, nipping, piercing, pinching, clay-cold, starved, chilled to the bone, shivering, aguish, transi de froid, frostbitten, frost-bound, frost-nipped, cold as a stone, cold as marble, cold as lead, cold as iron, cold as a frog, cold as charity, cold as Christmas, cool as a cucumber, cool as custard, icy, glacial, frosty, freezing, pruinose, wintry, brumal, hibernal, boreal, arctic, Siberian, hyemal, hyperborean, hyperboreal, icebound, frozen out, unwarmed, unthawed, lukewarm, tepid, isocheimal, isocheimenal, isocheimic, frozen, numb, frost-bitten, coldly, bitterly, pierre fendre.