numb
Americanadjective
-
number,
comparative
-
numbest
superlative
-
deprived of physical sensation or the ability to move.
fingers numb with cold.
-
manifesting or resembling numbness.
a numb sensation.
-
incapable of action or of feeling emotion; enervated; prostrate.
numb with grief.
-
lacking or deficient in emotion or feeling; indifferent.
She was numb to their pleas for mercy.
verb (used with object)
-
numbs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
numbed,
past participle, past
-
numbing
present participle
adjective
-
deprived of feeling through cold, shock, etc
-
unable to move; paralysed
-
characteristic of or resembling numbness
a numb sensation
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
numbsimple
-
numbssimple
-
have numbedperfect
-
has numbedperfect
-
am numbingprogressive
-
are numbingprogressive
-
is numbingprogressive
-
have been numbingperfect progressive
-
has been numbingperfect progressive
Past
-
numbedsimple
-
had numbedperfect
-
was numbingprogressive
-
were numbingprogressive
-
had been numbingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of numb
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English nome, literally, “taken, seized,” variant of nomen, numen, Old English numen, past participle of niman “to take, steal”; cf. nim 1
Explanation
Numb is an adjective that describes a lack of sensation. After skiing all day, your toes might be numb from the cold. You'd feel numb for hours after hearing that your favorite band broke up. People can feel numb in terms of their feelings and emotions. For example, if you've had your heart broken lots of times, you start to become numb — the breakups don't upset you so much. Numb can also describe being so frightened that you can't move, like being numb with fear when you saw the bear near your campsite. Numb can also mean "to make insensitive," like when the dentist numbs your gums so you won't feel any pain.
Vocabulary lists containing numb
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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Lesson 1
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The Circuit
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And I also appreciate users’ impatience with glass-cockpit style environments and the numb tapping required for the most routine adjustment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Prosecutor Dawn Pritchard read out a victim personal statement telling the judge the victim "feels numb when she thinks back to how she felt at the time".
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Less common symptoms include a cold, numb leg or a cough.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
“We feel the need to humanize Iranians because Americans are used to seeing all those lands as numbers or rubble or desert, and that makes us numb to what happens there,” Wilson said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026
I was pretty much numb after being questioned.
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
“You do not need to acquire all three; you can acquire any number of them, so long as each replacement property you acquire is among the identified properties.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
Companies last year bought more than 36,700 robots, the highest number of orders since 2022, when businesses were rushing to outfit their warehouses with technology to meet soaring e-commerce demand during the pandemic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
The first day, Jonathan very sarcastically said to me, “Do you know what number I am on the call sheet?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Langley told a TED audience in April that the misuse of the company’s technology was “a trade-off I can make” compared to the number of investigations he said it assists with.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
I got number 23 to wear around my neck.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
So perhaps it’s fitting that the most recent addition to this sad subgenre is the numbest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2025
“It might be that we’re killing it, or that’s it’s slowly dying because we’re reducing it to its numbest form, but I don’t think that has to be,” she said.
From Slate ● Mar. 8, 2019
Relationships falter because videogames get in the way, and life dissolves into a virtual reality that numbs the pain meant to drive our growth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2025
If the flood numbs Americans to crises and catastrophes that comprise daily life in other parts of the world, can you blame us?
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2024
The local anaesthetic numbs the nerves in the short term.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2024
The native of Puebla, Mexico, suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and rheumatoid arthritis, which sometimes numbs the joints in his hands, making it difficult to work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2023
A hand closes on my wrist, and piercing cold numbs my arm to the shoulder.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Damon’s Odysseus is numbed by the massacre of Troy’s civilians; Fiennes’ hates himself for leading the best men of Ithaca to their death, gutting his own community in the heedless destruction of another.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Some contend that numbed investors to the threat, keeping yields and borrowing costs lower than they should have been.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
In his sermon during Saturday night's Easter vigil, the pontiff urged believers not to feel numbed by the scale of global conflicts but to work actively for reconciliation.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2026
The numbed stage: The only cease-fire is in the markets.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 26, 2026
He had numbed himself, according to Ana, the therapist who Mark and Linda sent him to, so that he wouldn’t feel any future pain.
From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway
The numbing lidocaine was injected first and sprayed down my windpipe, making me feel as if I were drowning.
From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2026
Despite the name, these aren’t peppers at all but members of the citrus family that trigger a numbing, tingling sensation on the tongue.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
But sometime over this last winter — that numbing, hoary stretch between mid-February and March — I decided this might be the year to reclaim a bit of seasonal delight.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2025
"Is it, in fact, unhealthy and desensitising and numbing to feel joy when we're surrounded by so much suffering?" he asks.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2025
The numbing power of its voice seemed directed somewhere else.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
