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
Examples from the Web for desensitized
Contemporary Examples
Perhaps they were wary of each other, or too desensitized to connect on any level.
In the border region, “drug trafficking is such a normal activity that people are so desensitized to it,” he said.
At Mexican Border, Four in Five Drug Busts Involve American CitizensAndrew Becker, G. W. Schulz, Tia Ghose
March 26, 2013
But some do wonder if popular culture has desensitized people to the very real consequences of violence.
To me, these are just a bunch of pictures taken by desensitized soldiers screwing around.
How do we take people who are jaded, desensitized, and make them care about crime?
Historical Examples
His impressions are transferred to the desensitized plate of Mr. Hennessy's mind, where they can do no harm.
Mr. Dooley in Peace and in WarFinley Peter Dunne
Her desensitized and asphalt palate thrills and throbs beneath the tricklings of Cordon Rouge.
Europe After 8:15H. L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan and Willard Huntington Wright
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
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for desensitized
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.