Definition of "benumbing" [benumbing]

• Present participle of benumb. (verb)

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• "That of body is nothing but a kind of benumbing laziness, intermitting exercise, which, if we may believe [1547] Fernelius, causeth crudities, obstructions, excremental humours, quencheth the natural heat, dulls the spirits, and makes them unapt to do any thing whatsoever."
• "When she returned perhaps their lives would readjust themselves -- but for the moment he longed for some kind of benumbing influence, something that should give relief to the dull daily ache of feeling her so near and yet so inaccessible."
• "In a benumbing turn of events, Abe Foxman, chief of the influential Anti-Defamation League and opponent of Park51 -- the so-called Ground Zero Mosque -- gave a speech this week decrying the rising culture of anti-Islam bigotry."