Definition of "numb"

[…] when we know that hundreds are rendered homeless every day, and countless thousands are killed and wounded, men and boys mowed down like a field of grain, and with as little compunction, we grow a little bit numb to human misery.

1915, Nellie McClung, chapter 2, in In Times Like These‎, Toronto: McLeod & Allen

[…] seeing the dog—somehow that made me feel again. I’d been too dazed, too numb, to feel the full viciousness of it.

1966, Truman Capote, In Cold Blood‎, New York: Modern Library, published 1992, Part One, p. 77

[…] he submitted […] as a traitor, his mind numb with vodka, submits to a firing squad.

2016, Julian Barnes, The Noise of Time‎, Random House Canada, Part Three

[…] he did lap meEven in his own garments, and gave himself,All thin and naked to the numb cold night.

c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]

But her main concern is the hard seating that numbs the nether regions.

2020 April 22, “Letters: Open Access: Not easy for laptops”, in Rail, page 31

[I was] thankful for the pain, which helped to numb my terror.

1861, Elizabeth Gaskell, “The Grey Woman”, in The Grey Woman and Other Tales‎, London: Smith, Elder & Co.

[…] hunger, fatigue, and despairing hopelessness had numbed his brain […]

1912, Saki, “The Hounds of Fate”, in The Chronicles of Clovis‎, London: John Lane, page 219

The noise, the rush of air past our ears, was positively terrific. It actually seemed to numb the senses and make it almost impossible to take in impressions at all.

1927, Hugh Lofting, Doctor Dolittle’s Garden‎, Part Four, Chapter 6

[The sofa] exhaled a breath of trapped ancient farts, barf-smell, and antiseptic, the parfum de asylum that gradually numbed my nose to all other scents on the ward.

2004, Cory Doctorow, chapter 13, in Eastern Standard Tribe‎

[…] after fumbling with numbing fingers for ten or fifteen minutes, he waved his hand with a gesture of despair […]

1918, Lewis R. Freeman, “Wonders of the Teleferica”, in Many Fronts‎, London: John Murray, page 270

[…] once more his feet began to numb. Again he got down and stamped the circulation going, but as soon as he began to ride again they numbed.

1919, Arthur Murray Chisholm, chapter 18, in The Land of Strong Men‎, New York: H.K. Fly