Word.ws English Dictionary

numbed

numbed is the simple past and past participle of numb.

Meaning of numb

Verb

numb (third-person singular simple present numbs, present participle numbing, simple past and past participle numbed)

  1. (transitive) To cause to become numb (physically or emotionally).
    • The dentist gave me novocaine to numb my tooth before drilling, thank goodness.
    Synonyms:
    benumb
  2. (transitive) To cause (a feeling) to be less intense.
    • He turned to alcohol to numb his pain.
    Synonyms:
    dull
  3. (transitive) To cause (the mind, faculties, etc.) to be less acute.
    • […] hunger, fatigue, and despairing hopelessness had numbed his brain […]1912, Saki, “The Hounds of Fate”, in The Chronicles of Clovis, London: John Lane, page 219
    Synonyms:
    dull
  4. (intransitive) To become numb (especially physically).
    • […] after fumbling with numbing fingers for ten or fifteen minutes, he waved his hand with a gesture of despair […]1918, Lewis R. Freeman, “Wonders of the Teleferica”, in Many Fronts, London: John Murray, page 270

See all 8 meanings of numb

Forms of numbed

comparativemore numbed
superlativemost numbed

Words formed from numbed

Phrases with numbed

Questions about numbed

What is numbed the simple past and past participle of?
Numbed is the simple past and past participle of numb.

Words near numbed in the dictionary

  1. numbats
  2. numbda
  3. numbdah
  4. numbdahs
  5. numbdas
  6. numbed
  7. numbed out
  8. numbedness
  9. number
  10. number 10
  11. number 10s

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: numbed (page history and authors); numb (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “numbed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/numbed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.