Definition of "anesthetize" []

• To induce anesthesia in. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "She used to be a size 6 or 8 and now she's a size 2, no longer using food to "anesthetize" herself."
• "The next step takes you farther into the wine, the love that will anesthetize the influence of trickster mind."
• "As her friend, British actor Russell Brand, observed in a tribute on his website: "The priority of any addict is to anesthetize the pain of living to ease the passage of the day with some purchased relief.""