different between numb vs dope

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: n?m, IPA^(key): /n?m/
• Rhymes: -?m

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

English

Etymology

From Dutch doop (“thick dipping sauce”), from Dutch dopen (“to dip”), from Middle Dutch dopen, from Old Dutch *d?pen, from Frankish *daupijan, from Proto-Germanic *daupijan?.

Sense “narcotic drug” originally from viscous opium pastes, “insider information” perhaps from knowing which horse had been doped in a race. Related to English dip and German taufen.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [d??p]
• (US) IPA^(key): [do?p]
• Rhymes: -??p

Noun

dope (countable and uncountable, plural dopes)

1. (uncountable) Any viscous liquid or paste, such as a lubricant, used in preparing a surface.
2. (uncountable) An absorbent material used to hold a liquid.
3. (uncountable, aeronautics) Any varnish used to coat a part, such as an airplane wing or a hot-air balloon in order to waterproof, strengthen, etc.
4. (uncountable, slang) Any illicit or narcotic drug that produces euphoria or satisfies an addiction; particularly heroin. [from late 19th c.]
5. (uncountable, slang) Information, usually from an inside source, originally in horse racing and other sports. [from early 20th c.]

   Synonym: scoop
6. (uncountable, fireams) Ballistic data on previously fired rounds, used to calculate the required hold over a target.
7. (countable, slang) A stupid person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fool
8. (US, Ohio) Dessert topping.

Derived terms

• dope fiend
• dope house
• dope man
• dope sheet
• dope slap/dope-slap
• dope story
• dopeless

Translations

Verb

dope (third-person singular simple present dopes, present participle doping, simple past and past participle doped)

1. (transitive, slang) To affect with drugs.

   Synonym: administer
2. (transitive) To treat with dope (lubricant, etc.).
3. (transitive, electronics) To add a dopant such as arsenic to (a pure semiconductor such as silicon).
4. (intransitive, now chiefly sports) To use drugs; especially, to use prohibited performance-enhancing drugs in sporting competitions.
5. (slang, transitive, dated) To judge or guess; to predict the result of.

Derived terms

• dope up

Descendants

Translations

Adjective

dope (comparative doper, superlative dopest)

1. (slang) Amazing.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:awesome

Translations

References

Anagrams

• deop, depo, op-ed, oped, p.o.'ed, p.o.ed, pedo, pedo-, pode, poed

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [do?p?]

Verb

dope

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of dopen

French

Etymology

From English dope

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?p/

Noun

dope f (plural dopes)

1. (informal) illicit drug, narcotic

Verb

dope

1. first-person singular present indicative of doper
2. third-person singular present indicative of doper
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of doper
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of doper
5. second-person singular imperative of doper

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?do?.p?]

Verb

dope

1. inflection of dopen:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative
   3. first/third-person singular subjunctive I

Ido

Etymology

From dop +? -e.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?do.pe/

Adverb

dope

1. back, behind, aback

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?dope/, [?d?o.pe]

Verb

dope

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of dopar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of dopar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of dopar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of dopar.