"benumb" meaning in English

See benumb in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /bi.ˈnʌm/ Forms: benumbs [present, singular, third-person], benumbing [participle, present], benumbed [participle, past], benumbed [past]
enPR: bē-nŭmʹ Rhymes: -ʌm Etymology: From be- + numb. Etymology templates: {{root|en|ine-pro|*nem-}}, {{prefix|en|be|numb}} be- + numb Head templates: {{en-verb}} benumb (third-person singular simple present benumbs, present participle benumbing, simple past and past participle benumbed)
  1. (transitive) To make numb, as by cold or anesthetic. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-benumb-en-verb-K3GM9YSr Categories (other): English terms prefixed with be- Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with be-: 57 43
  2. (transitive, figurative) To deaden, dull (the mind, faculties, etc.). Tags: figuratively, transitive
    Sense id: en-benumb-en-verb-63mf9rTe Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 17 83 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 15 85 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 10 90
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: benumbed, benumbedness, benumber, benumbingly, benumbment, unbenumb

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "benumbed"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "benumbedness"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "benumber"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "benumbingly"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "benumbment"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "unbenumb"
    }
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  "etymology_text": "From be- + numb.",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "benumbs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
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    },
    {
      "form": "benumbing",
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        "participle",
        "present"
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    },
    {
      "form": "benumbed",
      "tags": [
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      "form": "benumbed",
      "tags": [
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  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "be‧numb"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "57 43",
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          "name": "English terms prefixed with be-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC, book II, page [233]:",
          "text": "[…] the sayd Phillip […] in the same his pilgrimage was stricken with such colde, that he fell into a palsey, and was benumbed of the right side of his body.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 344:",
          "text": "[…] the Cold was insufferable; nor indeed was it more painful than it was surprising, to come but ten Days before out of the old Castile where the Weather was not only warm but very hot, and immediately to feel a Wind from the Pyrenean Mountains, so very keen, so severely cold, as to be intollerable, and to endanger benumbing and perishing of our Fingers and Toes.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1847 December, Acton Bell [pseudonym; Anne Brontë], chapter 2, in Agnes Grey. […], London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:",
          "text": "‘My hands are so benumbed with the cold that I can scarcely handle my knife and fork.’",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make numb, as by cold or anesthetic."
      ],
      "id": "en-benumb-en-verb-K3GM9YSr",
      "links": [
        [
          "numb",
          "numb"
        ],
        [
          "cold",
          "cold"
        ],
        [
          "anesthetic",
          "anesthetic"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To make numb, as by cold or anesthetic."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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        {
          "_dis": "15 85",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
          "_dis": "10 90",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:",
          "text": "[…] If this law\nOf nature be corrupted through affection,\nAnd that great minds, of partial indulgence\nTo their benumbed wills, resist the same,\nThere is a law in each well-order’d nation\nTo curb those raging appetites that are\nMost disobedient and refractory.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XI”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 18:",
          "text": "I struggled, and trembled, and was so benumb’d with Terror, that I sunk down, not in a Fit, and yet not myself […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 17, in Daniel Deronda, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:",
          "text": "Sorrowful isolation had benumbed her sense of reality, and the power of distinguishing outward and inward was continually slipping away from her.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, “Hermaphroditus”, in Middlesex, New York: Picador, page 483:",
          "text": "Five nights a week, six hours a day, for the next four months—and, fortunately, never again—I made my living by exhibiting the peculiar way I am formed. The Clinic had prepared me for it, benumbing my sense of shame, and besides, I was desperate for money.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To deaden, dull (the mind, faculties, etc.)."
      ],
      "id": "en-benumb-en-verb-63mf9rTe",
      "links": [
        [
          "deaden",
          "deaden"
        ],
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          "dull",
          "dull"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, figurative) To deaden, dull (the mind, faculties, etc.)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "bē-nŭmʹ"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/bi.ˈnʌm/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌm"
    }
  ],
  "word": "benumb"
}
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    "English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European",
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    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌm",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌm/2 syllables"
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  "derived": [
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      "word": "benumbed"
    },
    {
      "word": "benumbedness"
    },
    {
      "word": "benumber"
    },
    {
      "word": "benumbingly"
    },
    {
      "word": "benumbment"
    },
    {
      "word": "unbenumb"
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      "expansion": "be- + numb",
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From be- + numb.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "benumbs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
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        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "benumbing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
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    },
    {
      "form": "benumbed",
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        "past"
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    },
    {
      "form": "benumbed",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC, book II, page [233]:",
          "text": "[…] the sayd Phillip […] in the same his pilgrimage was stricken with such colde, that he fell into a palsey, and was benumbed of the right side of his body.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 344:",
          "text": "[…] the Cold was insufferable; nor indeed was it more painful than it was surprising, to come but ten Days before out of the old Castile where the Weather was not only warm but very hot, and immediately to feel a Wind from the Pyrenean Mountains, so very keen, so severely cold, as to be intollerable, and to endanger benumbing and perishing of our Fingers and Toes.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1847 December, Acton Bell [pseudonym; Anne Brontë], chapter 2, in Agnes Grey. […], London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:",
          "text": "‘My hands are so benumbed with the cold that I can scarcely handle my knife and fork.’",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make numb, as by cold or anesthetic."
      ],
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        [
          "numb",
          "numb"
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        [
          "cold",
          "cold"
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          "anesthetic",
          "anesthetic"
        ]
      ],
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        "(transitive) To make numb, as by cold or anesthetic."
      ],
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        "transitive"
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          "ref": "c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:",
          "text": "[…] If this law\nOf nature be corrupted through affection,\nAnd that great minds, of partial indulgence\nTo their benumbed wills, resist the same,\nThere is a law in each well-order’d nation\nTo curb those raging appetites that are\nMost disobedient and refractory.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XI”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 18:",
          "text": "I struggled, and trembled, and was so benumb’d with Terror, that I sunk down, not in a Fit, and yet not myself […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 17, in Daniel Deronda, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:",
          "text": "Sorrowful isolation had benumbed her sense of reality, and the power of distinguishing outward and inward was continually slipping away from her.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, “Hermaphroditus”, in Middlesex, New York: Picador, page 483:",
          "text": "Five nights a week, six hours a day, for the next four months—and, fortunately, never again—I made my living by exhibiting the peculiar way I am formed. The Clinic had prepared me for it, benumbing my sense of shame, and besides, I was desperate for money.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To deaden, dull (the mind, faculties, etc.)."
      ],
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        [
          "deaden",
          "deaden"
        ],
        [
          "dull",
          "dull"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, figurative) To deaden, dull (the mind, faculties, etc.)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "bē-nŭmʹ"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/bi.ˈnʌm/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌm"
    }
  ],
  "word": "benumb"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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