Adjective

(en adjective)

Having no sensation or consciousness; unconscious; inanimate.

* 1816 , , Diodati :

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.

* 1928 , , "Moriturus":

If I might be

Insensate matter

With sensate me

Sitting within,

Harking and prying,

I might begin

To dicker with dying.

Senseless; foolish; irrational.

* 1818 , , Rob Roy , ch. 13:

[T]he sot, the gambler, the bully, the jockey, the insensate fool, were a thousand times preferable to Rashleigh.

* 1854 , , Hard Times , ch. 13:

Stupidly dozing, or communing with her incapable self about nothing, she sat for a little while with her hands at her ears. . . . Finally, she laid her insensate grasp upon the bottle that had swift and certain death in it, and, before his eyes, pulled out the cork with her teeth.

* 1913 , , Chance , ch. 6:

[T]he romping girl teased her . . . and was always trying to pick insensate quarrels with her about some "fellow" or other.

* 1918 , , The False Faces , ch. 12:

But in his insensate passion for revenge upon one who had all but murdered him, he had forgotten all else but the moment's specious opportunity.

Unfeeling, heartless, cruel, insensitive.

* 1847 , , The Tenant of Wildfell Hall ,ch. 36:

I was cold-hearted, hard, insensate .

* 1904 , , A Man's Woman , ch. 6:

That insensate , bestial determination, iron-hearted, iron-strong, had beaten down opposition, had carried its point.

* 1917 , , The Adventures of Jimmie Dale , ch. 8:

. . . the most cold-blooded, callous murders and robberies, the work, on the face of it, of a well-organized band of thugs, brutal, insensate , little better than fiends.

(medicine, physiology) Not responsive to sensory stimuli.

* 1958 June, Edward B. Schlesinger, "Trigeminal Neuralgia," American Journal of Nursing , vol. 58, no. 6, p. 854:

If the ophthalmic branch is cut the patient must be told about the hazards of having an insensate cornea.

* 2004 Aug. 1, Jeff G. van Baal, "Surgical Treatment of the Infected Diabetic Foot," Clinical Infectious Diseases , vol. 39, p. S126:

The presence of severe pain with a deep plantar foot infection in a diabetic patient is often the first alarming symptom, especially in a patient with a previously insensate foot.

* 2005 Feb. 5, "Minerva," BMJ: British Medical Journal , vol. 330, no. 7486, p. 316:

The innocuous trauma of high pressure jets and bubble massage to the insensate breast and back areas had caused the bruising seen in the picture.

Adjective

(en-adj)

strangely unconventional in style or appearance.

* {{quote-news, year=2011

, date=October 22 , author=Sam Sheringham , title=Aston Villa 1 - 2 West Brom , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=West Brom enjoyed more possession as the half progressed and were handed a penalty of their own in the 21st minute in bizarre circumstances.}}