Word forms: 3rd person singular presenttense desensitizes, present participle desensitizing, past tense, past participle desensitizedregional note: in BRIT, also use desensitise
verb
To desensitize someone to things such as pain, anxiety, or other people's suffering, means to cause them to react less strongly to them.
...the language that is used to desensitize us to the terrible reality of war. [VERB noun + to]
Your immune system has been desensitized because it has become used to the substance. [beVERB-ed]
[Also VERB noun]
desensitize in British English
or desensitise (diːˈsɛnsɪˌtaɪz)
verb(transitive)
1.
to render insensitive or less sensitive
the patient was desensitized to the allergen
to desensitize photographic film
2. psychology
to decrease the abnormal fear in (a person) of a situation or object, by exposing him or her to it either in reality or in his or her imagination
Derived forms
desensitization (deˌsensitiˈzation) or desensitisation (deˌsensitiˈsation)
noun
desensitizer (deˈsensiˌtizer) or desensitiser (deˈsensiˌtiser)
noun
desensitize in American English
(diˈsɛnsəˌtaɪz)
verb transitiveWord forms: deˈsensiˌtized or deˈsensiˌtizing
1.
to take away the sensitivity of; make less sensitive
2.
to make (a photographic plate or film) less sensitive to light
3. Medicine
to make (a person, animal, or tissue) nonreactive or nonallergic to a substance byremoving the antibodies from sensitized cells