desensitize
verb
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Physical desensitizing is something that biologists have long been aware of. Basic training in the armed forces tries to desensitize new recruits to pain. We can desensitize ourselves to the summer heat by turning off the air conditioning, or become desensitized to the cold by walking barefoot in the snow. But desensitize is more often used when talking about negative emotions. Parents worry that their children will be desensitized to violence by playing video games. Soldiers may become desensitized to death on the battlefield. Desensitizing may be natural and desirable under some circumstances, but maybe not so good in others.
Examples of desensitize in a Sentence
Jen McCaffery, Discover Magazine, 14 Nov. 2024
How does Reed balance communicating the brutality of a terrorist attack without desensitizing the audience?
—K.j. Yossman, Variety, 9 Oct. 2024
And this is one of the biggest dangers with the current war, is this process of desensitizing people, brutalizing people.
—Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 4 Oct. 2024
When training young children for suicide missions or frontline engagement, ISIS tries to desensitize them to violence by exposing them to actual beheadings or videos of them.
—Mia Bloom, Foreign Affairs, 9 Feb. 2015
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Dictionary Entries Near desensitize
Cite this Entry
“Desensitize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/desensitize. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
desensitize
transitive verbStephanie HarringtonS. M. Nilius et al.
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