_:vb6850073 "1927, Hugh Lofting, Doctor Dolittle\u2019s Garden\u200E[1], Part Four, Chapter 6:"@en . _:vb6850071 . _:vb6850073 "The noise, the rush of air past our ears, was positively terrific. It actually seemed to numb the senses and make it almost impossible to take in impressions at all."@en . _:vb6850074 "[The sofa] exhaled a breath of trapped ancient farts, barf-smell, and antiseptic, the parfum de asylum that gradually numbed my nose to all other scents on the ward."@en . _:vb6850072 "[\u2026] hunger, fatigue, and despairing hopelessness had numbed his brain [\u2026]"@en . "3" . _:vb6850072 . _:vb6850073 . _:vb6850074 . . _:vb6850071 "(transitive) To cause (the mind, faculties, etc.) to be less acute."@en . _:vb6850074 "2004, Cory Doctorow, chapter 13, in Eastern Standard Tribe\u200E[1]:"@en . _:vb6850072 "1912, Saki, \u201CThe Hounds of Fate\u201D, in The Chronicles of Clovis\u200E[1], London: John Lane, page 219:"@en . .