desensitize
[dee-sen-si-tahyz]
- to lessen the sensitiveness of.
- to make indifferent, unaware, or the like, in feeling.
- Photography. to make less sensitive or wholly insensitive to light, as the emulsion on a film.
- Printing. to treat (the design on a lithographic plate) with an etch in order to increase the capacity to retain moisture, and to remove traces of grease.
- Chemistry. to reduce the sensitivity of (an explosive) to those stimuli capable of detonating it.
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Also especially British, de·sen·si·tise.
Origin of desensitize
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
desensitize
desensitise
- to render insensitive or less sensitivethe patient was desensitized to the allergen; to desensitize photographic film
- psychol to decrease the abnormal fear in (a person) of a situation or object, by exposing him to it either in reality or in his imagination
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for desensitize
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
desensitize
(dē-sĕn′sĭ-tīz′)- To render insensitive or less sensitive, as a nerve or tooth.
- To make an individual nonreactive or insensitive to an antigen.
- To make a person emotionally insensitive or unresponsive, as by long exposure or repeated shocks.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.