numbing

[ nuhm-ing ]

adjective

1. causing numbness or insensibility; stupefying:

   the numbing effects of grief; a story repeated with numbing regularity.

Other Words From

• numbing·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of numbing¹

First recorded in 1625–35; numb + -ing ²

Example Sentences

A season of monotony has played out with a numbing sameness on the interior of UCLA’s defensive line.

From Los Angeles Times

The play dramatizes the modern Kafkaesque hell of automated phone systems that make callers wait ungodly amounts of time, to numbing hold music, before speaking to a scripted agent.

From Los Angeles Times

Two games in, the National League Championship Series has now been transformed into something few thought it would ever be, something that should make Dodger fans knot those blue rags around their numbing fingers.

From Los Angeles Times

By the time she entered high school, she’d begun using food as more than just a source of soothing — it was a kind of numbing agent she’d administer in secret.

From Los Angeles Times

According to the guidelines, the topical anesthetic lidocaine “might be useful for reducing patient pain” when injected as a local anesthetic or applied topically as a numbing gel, cream or spray.

From Salon