How to Use anesthetize in a Sentence

anesthetize

verb
  • The doctor anesthetized the patient by an intravenous injection.
  • She was anesthetized before the operation.
  • And plants can be anesthetized.
    — Terry Gross, NPR, 19 Feb. 2026
  • He was anesthetized, his skull was cut open, and his brain began to move.
    — Dan Rockmore, The New Yorker, 15 Jan. 2024
  • Shopping is so anesthetized these days.
    — Marisa Meltzer, Vanity Fair, 28 Apr. 2026
  • So the first step is figuring out a way to anesthetize the eel.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 14 Dec. 2021
  • The animal is anesthetized and its blood drawn with a tiny syringe.
    — Washington Post, 3 Nov. 2017
  • The zoo staff decided to run some tests, anesthetizing him with a dart.
    — Lainey Seyler, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 29 June 2018
  • There are plays that seduce and anesthetize and candy-coat everything to make the world taste good.
    — Jack Helbig, Chicago Reader, 13 June 2018
  • Meanwhile, the whole society tends to be anesthetized.
    — David Brooks, Mercury News, 24 Jan. 2026
  • Perhaps anesthetizing us to the violence was part of the point.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 May 2018
  • So Gage takes a live roach, anesthetizes it by dipping it in an ice bath for a few minutes, and snips off one of its legs.
    — Mike Isaac, WIRED, 2 Mar. 2012
  • But not all of Zhu’s cooking features its spicy heat and anesthetizing effect.
    — Stephanie Breijo, Los Angeles Times, 27 June 2023
  • The doctors eventually had to anesthetize the man and shock his heart back into a normal rhythm.
    — Rachel Nuwer, Scientific American, 14 May 2024
  • Researchers catch fish and anesthetize them in a special bath before inserting the tag with a tiny syringe.
    — Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Sep. 2023
  • The crew pumped carbon dioxide into the tree during the nest removal to anesthetize the hornets.
    — Mica Soellner, Washington Examiner, 11 Nov. 2020
  • Usually when this happens, doctors will anesthetize a patient and cut off the item, trapping the tongue.
    — Daisy Hernandez, Popular Mechanics, 1 Nov. 2019
  • The big moments of tension come from waiting for a bird to lay an egg or figuring out how to anesthetize a gorilla.
    — Margaret Lyons, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2017
  • The synthetic drug is commonly used by doctors to anesthetize patients or treat severe pain.
    — Paige Winfield Cunningham, Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2017
  • Such was the case in an episode in which Selma floated around in lotus land after being anesthetized for minor surgery.
    — Gail Williams, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2024
  • Yet as Etty understood so well, the temptation to shut it all out, to anesthetize, is ever-present.
    — Elizabeth Svoboda, Longreads, 30 Apr. 2020
  • But he has been anesthetized and does not react to the experts preparing him for his new adventure and, perhaps, the end of an era at the zoo.
    — Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post, 4 Sep. 2019
  • But its protagonist floats through the action — filled with jealousy, lust and violence — as though he were anesthetized.
    — Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, 16 May 2023
  • When the hornets stopped coming out of the nest, the team pumped carbon dioxide into the tree to kill or anesthetize any remaining hornets.
    — CBS News, 28 Oct. 2020
  • First, the areas of the body to be liposuctioned are marked and filled with tumescent fluid (to anesthetize them and reduce bleeding).
    — Jolene Edgar, Harper's BAZAAR, 1 Feb. 2023
  • On Thursday, the zebra was anesthetized so that the specialists could perform some followup treatment to its hoof.
    — Johnny Diaz, sun-sentinel.com, 13 Sep. 2019
  • The prison was using a new, unproven drug that some experts said wouldn’t anesthetize an inmate as the painful second and third drugs were administered.
    — Ziva Branstetter, ProPublica, 29 July 2022
  • The four others started showing signs of acute illness minutes later, so veterinary staff anesthetized them and pumped their stomachs.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 14 June 2023
  • Later that afternoon the terrier is anesthetized and his still body disappears into the great machine.
    — Amy Sutherland, BostonGlobe.com, 16 May 2018
  • To gather more information, the veterinary team anesthetized the dog and explored the area around the wound to determine where the stick ended.
    — Kelli Bender, PEOPLE, 15 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'anesthetize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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