1. make less sensitive: "creams to desensitize the skin at the site of the injection"
▪ make (someone) less likely to feel shock or distress at scenes of cruelty or suffering by overexposure to such images: "the media had desensitized him to the horror of violence"
▪ free (someone) from a phobia or neurosis by gradually exposing them to the thing that is feared.
