Crossword Dictionary
NUMB
numb - a
so frightened as to be unable to move; stunned or paralyzed with terror; petrified; "too numb with fear to move"
Synonyms
asleep, benumbed, dead, insensitive, numbed, torpid, unfeeling
Examples
Gabriel stood for a long moment, numb, and then flung a knife into the forest with a roar.
By the time he set her down safe and dry on the other side, her hands were going numb and her shoulders were aching.
Taran held onto the boy, numb and terrified, as they rode long and hard, away from the beach, away from his slain father.
Etymology
c. 1400, nome, "deprived of motion or feeling, powerless to feel or act," literally "taken, seized," from past participle of nimen "to take, seize," from Old English niman "to take, catch, grasp" (from PIE root *nem- "assign, allot; take"). The unetymological -b (to conform to comb, limb, etc.) appeared 17c. The notion is of being "taken" with palsy, shock, and especially cold. Figurative use is from 1560s.