dead vs numb what difference

what is difference between dead and numb

English

Etymology

From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz.

Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish, Norwegian død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud.

Pronunciation

• enPR: dĕd, IPA^(key): /dɛd/
• Rhymes: -ɛd
• (West Country) IPA^(key): /diːd/

Adjective

dead (comparative deader, superlative deadest)

1. (usually not comparable) No longer living. (Also used as a noun.)
   • 1968, Ray Thomas, “Legend of a Mind”, The Moody Blues, In Search of the Lost Chord.

   Have respect for the dead.

   The villagers are mourning their dead.

   The dead are always with us, in our hearts.

2. (usually not comparable) Devoid of life.
3. (hyperbolic) Figuratively, not alive; lacking life.
4. (of another person) So hated that they are absolutely ignored.

5. Doomed; marked for death (literally or as a hyperbole).
6. Without emotion.

7. Stationary; static.

8. Without interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.

9. Unproductive.

10. (not comparable, of a machine, device, or electrical circuit) Completely inactive; currently without power; without a signal.
11. (of a battery) Unable to emit power, being discharged (flat) or faulty.
12. (not comparable) Broken or inoperable.

13. (not comparable) No longer used or required.
    • 1984, Winston Smock, Technical Writing for Beginners, page 148:

      No mark of any kind should ever be made on a dead manuscript.

    • 2017, Zhaomo Yang and Brian Johannesmeyer, “Dead Store Elimination (Still) Considered Harmful”:

      In this paper, we survey the set of techniques found in the wild that are intended to prevent data-scrubbing operations from being removed during dead store elimination.

14. (engineering) Not imparting motion or power by design.

15. (not comparable, sports) Not in play.

16. (not comparable, golf, of a golf ball) Lying so near the hole that the player is certain to hole it in the next stroke.
17. (not comparable, baseball, slang, 1800s) Tagged out.
18. (not comparable) Full and complete.

19. (not comparable) Exact.

20. Experiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).

    After sitting on my hands for a while, my arms became dead.

21. Constructed so as not to transmit sound; soundless.

22. (obsolete) Bringing death; deadly.
23. (law) Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property.

24. (rare, especially religion, often with “to”) Indifferent to, no longer subject to or ruled by (sin, guilt, pleasure, etc).
    • 1839, William Jenks, The Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible: Acts-Revelation, page 361:

      He was dead to the law. Whatever account others might make of it, yet, for his part, he was dead to it. […] But though he was thus dead to the law, yet he […] was far from thinking himself discharged from his duty to God’ on the contrary, he was dead to the law, that he might live unto God.

    • 1849, Robert Haldane, Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, page 255:

      But he died to the guilt of sin—to the guilt of his people’s sins which he had taken upon him; and they, dying with him, as is above declared, die to sin precisely in the same sense in which he died to it. […] He was not justified from it till his resurrection, but from that moment he was dead to it. When he shall appear the second time, it will be “without sin.”

Usage notes

• In Middle and Early Modern English, the phrase is dead was more common where the present perfect form has died is common today. Example:

1611, King James Bible

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. (Gal. 2:21)

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:dead

Antonyms

• alive
• living

Translations

Adverb

dead (not comparable)

1. (degree, informal, colloquial) Exactly.

   dead right; dead level; dead flat; dead straight; dead left

   He hit the target dead in the centre.

2. (degree, informal, colloquial) Very, absolutely, extremely.

   dead wrong; dead set; dead serious; dead drunk; dead broke; dead earnest; dead certain; dead slow; dead sure; dead simple; dead honest; dead accurate; dead easy; dead scared; dead solid; dead black; dead white; dead empty
3. Suddenly and completely.

   He stopped dead.

4. (informal) As if dead.

   dead tired; dead quiet; dead asleep; dead pale; dead cold; dead still

   • I was tired of reading, and dead sleepy.

Translations

Noun

dead (uncountable)

2. (often with “the”) Time when coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense.

   The dead of night. The dead of winter.

3. (collective, with “the”) Those persons who are dead.

Translations

Noun

dead (plural deads)

2. (Britain) (usually in the plural) Sterile mining waste, often present as many large rocks stacked inside the workings.

Verb

dead (third-person singular simple present deads, present participle deading, simple past and past participle deaded)

1. (transitive) To prevent by disabling; stop.
   • 1826, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Edward Reynolds, Lord Bishop of Norwich, collected by Edward Reynolds, Benedict Riveley, and Alexander Chalmers. pp. 227. London: B. Holdsworth.

     “What a man should do, when finds his natural impotency dead him in spiritual works”

2. (transitive) To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigour.
3. (Britain, transitive, slang) To kill.

Related terms

• deaden
• deadliness
• deadly
• deadness
• death
• undead

Derived terms

References

• dead at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Dade, Edda, adde, dade

French

Etymology

From English dead.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɛd/

Verb

dead

1. (slang, anglicism) to succeed (in doing something well, “killing it”)

Usage notes

The verb is left unconjugated: il dead, il a dead. Usage is limited to the present, as well as an infinitive or a past participle.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *daud.

Cognate with Old Frisian dād (West Frisian dead), Old Saxon dōd, Dutch dood, Old High German tōt (German tot), Old Norse dauðr (Swedish död), Gothic ???????????????????? (dauþs).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dæ͜ɑːd/

Adjective

dēad

1. dead

Declension

Derived terms

• dēadlīċ
• healfdēad

Related terms

• dēaþ

Descendants

• Middle English: ded, deed
  • Scots: dede, deed, deid
  • English: dead
  • Yola: deed

See also

• steorfan

Volapük

Etymology

Borrowed from English dead or death (with the “th” changed to “d”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [deˈad]

Noun

dead (nominative plural deads)

1. death, state being dead, state of death

Declension

Derived terms

• ädeadöl
• bludamodeadön
• dadeadön
• deadam
• deadamadel
• deadan
• deadanöp
• deadik
• deadio
• deadöf
• deadöfan
• deadöfik
• deadöl
• deadölan
• deadön
• deid
• deidöl
• deidön
• drakideidan
• drakihideidan
• drakijideidan
• edeadöl
• edeadön
• hideadan
• hideadöfan
• hideadölan
• jideadan
• jideadöfan
• jideadölan
• pedeidöl

English

Etymology

From the past participle of nim (“to take”). Compare German benommen (“dazed, numb”). The final ⟨b⟩ is a later addition to the spelling; it was never pronounced, and did not appear in the original word.

Pronunciation

• enPR: nŭm, IPA^(key): /nʌm/
• Rhymes: -ʌm

Adjective

numb (comparative number, superlative numbest)

1. Physically unable to feel, not having the power of sensation.

   Synonyms: deadened, insensible

2. Emotionally unable to feel or respond in a normal way.

   numb with shock; numb with boredom

   • 1915, Nellie McClung, In Times Like These, Toronto: McLeod & Allen, Chapter 2,^[1]

     […] when we know that hundreds are rendered homeless every day, and countless thousands are killed and wounded, men and boys mowed down like a field of grain, and with as little compunction, we grow a little bit numb to human misery.

   • 1966, Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, New York: Modern Library, 1992, Part One, p. 77,^[2]

     […] seeing the dog—somehow that made me feel again. I’d been too dazed, too numb, to feel the full viciousness of it.

   • 2016, Julian Barnes, The Noise of Time, Random House Canada, Part Three,^[3]

     […] he submitted […] as a traitor, his mind numb with vodka, submits to a firing squad.

   Synonym: stunned

3. (obsolete) Causing numbness.
   • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act II, Scene 1,^[4]

     […] he did lap me

     Even in his own garments, and gave himself,

     All thin and naked to the numb cold night.

Antonyms

• sensible, sensitive

Derived terms

Related terms

• numskull

Translations

Verb

numb (third-person singular simple present numbs, present participle numbing, simple past and past participle numbed)

1. (transitive) To cause to become numb (physically or emotionally).

   Synonym: benumb

2. (transitive) To cause (a feeling) to be less intense.
   • 1861, Elizabeth Gaskell, “The Grey Woman” in The Grey Woman and Other Tales, London: Smith, Elder & Co.,^[5]

     [I was] thankful for the pain, which helped to numb my terror.

   Synonym: dull

3. (transitive) To cause (the mind, faculties, etc.) to be less acute.
   • 1912, Saki, “The Hounds of Fate” in The Chronicles of Clovis, London: John Lane, p. 219,^[6]

     […] hunger, fatigue, and despairing hopelessness had numbed his brain […]

   • 1927, Hugh Lofting, Doctor Dolittle’s Garden, Part Four, Chapter 6,^[7]

     The noise, the rush of air past our ears, was positively terrific. It actually seemed to numb the senses and make it almost impossible to take in impressions at all.

   • 2004, Cory Doctorow, Eastern Standard Tribe, Chapter 13,^[8]

     [The sofa] exhaled a breath of trapped ancient farts, barf-smell, and antiseptic, the parfum de asylum that gradually numbed my nose to all other scents on the ward.

   Synonym: dull

4. (intransitive) To become numb (especially physically).
   • 1918, Lewis R. Freeman, Many Fronts, London: John Murray, “Wonders of the Teleferica,” p. 270,^[9]

     […] after fumbling with numbing fingers for ten or fifteen minutes, he waved his hand with a gesture of despair […]

   • 1919, Arthur Murray Chisholm, The Land of Strong Men, New York: H.K. Fly, Chapter 18,^[10]

     […] once more his feet began to numb. Again he got down and stamped the circulation going, but as soon as he began to ride again they numbed.

Derived terms

• mind-numbing

Translations

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