---

• v  cause not to be sensitive
  The war desensitized many soldiers
  The photographic plate was desensitized
• v  make insensitive
  His military training desensitized him

• Quake and its ilk may have helped desensitize a generation--but you're blasting cyborgs, not classmates, and you're certainly not constructing pipe bombs.
• Some of the worst crimes were carried out by gangs of child soldiers, who were fed drugs to desensitize them to the horror of their actions.
• But without an adult to help children articulate what they are seeing, these stories can be disturbing or can desensitize them to the consequences of real violence.

• desensitise

• sensitize
• sensitise

News & Articles

---

• Photo: Horsing around - Tue, 23 Jul 2013 PST
  Having a ball: 4-H South Horse Camp campers toss bouncy balls to each other during a drill to desensitize their horses on the final morning of a three-day camp at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center. Almost 40 kids participated in reining, Western and English Equitation, leather stamping, drill team and dressage. “We want to make great adults out of these kids” 4-H program coordinator Kate ...
  July 23, 2013 - The Spokesman-Review

Quotes

---

• Charles Schumer in GameSpot
  Little Johnny should be learning how to read, not how to kill cops,Schumer said. "The bottom line is that games that are aimed and marketed at kids shouldn't desensitize them to death and destruction."
• Paul Mooney in Canton Repository (subscription)
  When he worked with Pryor "using the word, we were trying to defuse it, trying to desensitize people to it ...... take the power out of it," explains Mooney. "But the word is an equal opportunity word now with Latin kids and white kids saying...