Insensate
adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 One who is insensate.
"Here, at any rate, hostility did not assume that slow and sickening form. It was a cosmic agency, active, lashing, eager for conquest: determination; not an insensate standing in the way."
- 1 To render insensate; to deprive of sensation or consciousness. rare
"And this thought, blinding them to all else, insensating them to all emotions but that of vengeance, was thought of Josephine."
- 1 Having no sensation or consciousness; unconscious; inanimate.
"Since thus divided — equal must it be If the deep barrier be of earth, or sea; It may be both — but one day end it must In the dark union of insensate dust."
- 2 Senseless; foolish; irrational; thoughtless.
"[…]the sot, the gambler, the bully, the jockey, the insensate fool, were a thousand times preferable to Rashleigh;—[…]"
- 3 Unfeeling, heartless, cruel, insensitive.
"I was cold-hearted, hard, insensate."
- 4 Not responsive to sensory stimuli; unfeeling.
"If the ophthalmic branch is cut the patient must be told about the hazards of having an insensate cornea."
- 1 devoid of feeling and consciousness and animation wordnet
- 2 without compunction or human feeling wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"But in the few short weeks since, she had caught more than one glimpse of Primeval Nature,—she of the bloody fang, blind, remorseless, insensate, destroying, ever destroying."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin īnsēnsātus.
From the substantivation of the above adjective. See -ate (noun-forming suffix).
From Latin īnsēnsātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
More for "insensate"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.