From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishnumbnumb1 /nʌm/ ●●○ adjective 1 FEEL HOT/COLD/TIRED ETCa part of your body that is numb is unable to feel anything, for example because you are very cold My fingers were so numb I could hardly write. The anaesthetic made his whole face go numb.2 FEEL HAPPY/FRIGHTENED/BORED ETCunable to think, feel, or react in a normal way SYN paralysednumb with shock/fear/terror etc I just sat there, numb with fear. —numbly adverb She watched numbly as Matt walked away. —numbness noun [uncountable] It caused some numbness in my hand.
Examples from the Corpus
numb• It was so cold my fingers had gone numb.• She ran the water out of the basin and held her wrists under the cold tap until they were numb.• Researchers speculate that this area becomes overloaded and shuts down eventually, leaving the woman numb and clinically depressed.• He stuck his hands into his pockets, the fingers numb and red.• She felt numb and tired and surprised herself by managing to sleep deeply and well.• Their taste buds are numb by now.• His legs grew so numb he couldn't move.• She felt numb, unable to respond.go numb• They gave me an injection to make my mouth go numb.• All through my childhood, my body always seemed to be going numb.• Glover felt how the entire lower half of himself was beginning to go numb.• It is so cold I am going numb.• My feet went numb down on the mud.• His fingers were also going numb from the strain of gripping the rope and taking the weight of his body.• The arm which was trapped beneath Celia gradually went numb, like a partial foretaste of death.• My fingers went numb, my toes, my lips.• My feet and hands get very cold and go numb when I am skiing.numb with shock/fear/terror etc• I was dazed at first - numb with shock.• The double blow left the 43-year-old Grease star numb with shock.• Robyn sat staring into space, her mind numb with shock and disbelief, total agonising disbelief.• But Highampton is still too numb with shock to voice any real rage.numbnumb2 verb [transitive] 1 FEEL HOT/COLD/TIRED ETCto make someone unable to feel pain or feel things they are touching The cold had numbed her fingers. the numbing effect of the drug2 FEEL HAPPY/FRIGHTENED/BORED ETCto make someone unable to think, feel, or react in a normal way He was numbed by the shock of his wife’s death.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
numb• The array is bewildering and the effect is numbing.• The prisoners were numbed by their years in jail.• It induces euphoria, numbs concentration and generally slows down reactions, increasing the likelihood of a bumpy return to earth.• There was continuous driving rain, and a cold that numbed me.• The cold wind numbed my face and hands.• So many films with so little time torture the eyeballs and numb the brain.• The cold water would numb the pain.• All these firms seem to be eight miles high, with the same numbing view of the lake and the mills.Origin numb1 (1400-1500) From the past participle of nim “to take” ((11-19 centuries)), from Old English niman 