From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
numb
adj 1: lacking sensation; "my foot is asleep"; "numb with cold"
[syn: {asleep(p)}, benumbed, numb]
2: (followed by `to') not showing human feeling or sensitivity;
unresponsive; "passersby were dead to our plea for help";
"numb to the cries for mercy" [syn: {dead(p)}, {numb(p)}]
3: so frightened as to be unable to move; stunned or paralyzed
with terror; petrified; "too numb with fear to move"
v 1: make numb or insensitive; "The shock numbed her senses"
[syn: numb, benumb, blunt, dull]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Numb \Numb\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Numbed (n[u^]md); p. pr. &
vb. n. Numbing (n[u^]m"[i^]ng).]
To make numb; to deprive of the power of sensation or motion;
to render senseless or inert; to deaden; to benumb; to
stupefy.
[1913 Webster]
For lazy winter numbs the laboring hand. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
Like dull narcotics, numbing pain. --Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Numb \Numb\ (n[u^]m), a. [OE. nume, nome, prop., seized, taken,
p. p. of nimen to take, AS. niman, p. p. numen. [root]7. See
Nimble, Nomad, and cf. Benumb.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Enfeebled in, or destitute of, the power of sensation and
motion; rendered torpid; benumbed; insensible; as, the
fingers or limbs are numb with cold. "A stony image, cold
and numb." --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Producing numbness; benumbing; as, the numb, cold night.
[Obs.] --Shak.
[1913 Webster]