How to Use desensitize in a Sentence

desensitize

verb
  • The shot will help to desensitize the nerve.
  • He has been desensitized in a lot of ways.
    — Odette Yousef, NPR, 6 Aug. 2025
  • Like the shots, the pills desensitize the body to the pollen.
    — Lynne Terry, OregonLive.com, 26 June 2017
  • Maupin grew up in the area by the airport, desensitized to planes.
    — Melissa Chan, NBC news, 8 June 2025
  • Players are desensitized to it, to a point.
    — Annie Heilbrunn, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Aug. 2025
  • Since when is so much of the world desensitized to lies and so agitated by truth.
    — Paul Du Quenoy, Newsweek, 1 Jan. 2025
  • Many deaf-blind people can’t read Braille with gloves on because their hands are desensitized.
    — Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 28 Apr. 2020
  • A lot of horror people are desensitized and looking for something to shake them.
    — Gina McIntyre, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Four days in Ivrea hadn’t desensitized me to the unusualness of any of it.
    — Jon Mooallem Andrea Frazzetta, New York Times, 17 Mar. 2023
  • Sometimes the wisest are the youngest in our lives, the ones who haven’t yet been desensitized to the atrocities of our world.
    — Katie Reilly, Time, 28 May 2018
  • The effect, to a child who is not desensitized enough, (sadly) can be detrimental.
    — Curtis Silver, WIRED, 4 Sep. 2012
  • The touch screen was desensitized with a filmy layer of grease, the cumulative tapping of many dirty hands.
    — Anelise Chen, The Atlantic, 25 Feb. 2025
  • That can desensitize us to actions that in another context would be seen as deeply provocative.
    — Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 29 June 2026
  • Some of the trainers at least wanted to desensitize Tilikum in case someone fell in.
    — Tim Zimmermann, Outside Online, 30 July 2010
  • Meth users also may be desensitized to pain, Price said, so using a Taser may not affect them.
    — Alexis Stevens, The Seattle Times, 20 Nov. 2018
  • Conversations with kids about killing games help to ensure they are not being desensitized.
    — Sarah Scott, Parents, 9 May 2025
  • We’re getting desensitized to it.
    — Juan A. Ramírez, Vogue, 21 Nov. 2025
  • For fear, try to desensitize your pup to trigger noises by playing movies with the sounds of thunderstorms or fireworks.
    — Hannah Harper, Health.com, 15 Apr. 2020
  • We have been desensitized to the struggles of our people and sold compassion and virtue with interest.
    — Linh Tat, Oc Register, 4 May 2026
  • Therefore, the injection should have desensitized the rat’s whole body equally.
    — Jonathon Keats, Discover Magazine, 11 May 2018
  • Sue from Pleasanton offered some tips on desensitizing Rudy to the camo.
    — Joan Morris, The Mercury News, 30 Jan. 2017
  • But people habituate to, and then desensitize to, doom overuse.
    — Tom Yulsman, Discover Magazine, 31 July 2023
  • Their players would do poorly in school and become isolated and desensitized.
    — Michael Z. Newman, Smithsonian, 25 May 2017
  • Instagram has almost desensitized me to seeing makeup artists glue weird things around their eyes — almost.
    — Devon Abelman, Allure, 9 Aug. 2017
  • Once a week, a massage therapist dug into her scars, helping to desensitize the tissue and push the muscle and skin apart.
    — Grayson Haver Currin, Outside Online, 27 Sep. 2019
  • Over time, this therapy desensitizes the cat's immune system to these triggers.
    — Barbara A. Perry, Newsweek, 27 Jan. 2025
  • As the number of lives at risk increases, psychic numbing begins to desensitize us.
    — Rose McDermott, Foreign Affairs, 30 May 2023
  • Some owners would be best advised to try desensitizing their pets prior to any face-to-face introductions.
    — Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Nov. 2025
  • Both types of stories can obscure and desensitize us to the disturbing violence.
    — Callum Borchers, Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2018
  • One hypothesis is that officers got used to the cameras and became desensitized to them.
    — Author: Amanda Ripley, Alaska Dispatch News, 20 Oct. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'desensitize.' 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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