insensate

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Having no sensation or consciousness

   Having no sensation or consciousness; unconscious; inanimate.

   • Since thus divided — equal must it be If the deep barrier be of earth, or sea; It may be both — but one day end it must In the dark union of insensate dust.
   • If I might be Insensate matter With sensate me Sitting within, Harking and prying, I might begin To dicker with dying.
2. 2

   Senseless

   Senseless; foolish; irrational; thoughtless.

   • […]the sot, the gambler, the bully, the jockey, the insensate fool, were a thousand times preferable to Rashleigh;—[…]
   • […]the romping girl teased her . . . and was always trying to pick insensate quarrels with her about some "fellow" or other.
3. 3

   Unfeeling, heartless, cruel, insensitive.

   • I was cold-hearted, hard, insensate.
   • That insensate, bestial determination, iron-hearted, iron-strong, had beaten down opposition, had carried its point.
   • […]the most cold-blooded, callous murders and robberies, the work, on the face of it, of a well-organized band of thugs, brutal, insensate, little better than fiends.
4. ›+ 3 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Not responsive to sensory stimuli

      Not responsive to sensory stimuli; unfeeling.

      • If the ophthalmic branch is cut the patient must be told about the hazards of having an insensate cornea.
      • The presence of severe pain with a deep plantar foot infection in a diabetic patient is often the first alarming symptom, especially in a patient with a previously insensate foot.
      • The innocuous trauma of high pressure jets and bubble massage to the insensate breast and back areas had caused the bruising seen in the picture.
   2. 5

      One who is insensate.

      • Here, at any rate, hostility did not assume that slow and sickening form. It was a cosmic agency, active, lashing, eager for conquest: determination; not an insensate standing in the way.
   3. 6

      To render insensate

      To render insensate; to deprive of sensation or consciousness.

      • And this thought, blinding them to all else, insensating them to all emotions but that of vengeance, was thought of Josephine.
      • The train moved on again, keeping us prisoners in a stench-filled car, starving, suffocating, insensated.

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