benumbing

Verb

benumb (third-person singular simple present benumbs, present participle benumbing, simple past and past participle benumbed)

1. (transitive) To make numb, as by cold or anesthetic.
   • […] the sayd Phillip […] in the same his pilgrimage was stricken with such colde, that he fell into a palsey, and was benumbed of the right side of his body.1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC, book II, page [233]
2. (figuratively, transitive) To deaden, dull (the mind, faculties, etc.).
   • […] If this law
     Of nature be corrupted through affection,
     And that great minds, of partial indulgence
     To their benumbed wills, resist the same,
     There is a law in each well-order’d nation
     To curb those raging appetites that are
     Most disobedient and refractory.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...