desensitize

Meanings

1. To reduce or eliminate the sensitivity of (someone) or in (something); to become insensitive.
2. To render (someone) emotionally or sensationally less responsive or irresponsive, as by long or repeated exposure to something.
3. To render (a person or animal) nonreactive or insensitive to an allergen.
4. To render (a photographic plate or film) less sensitive or insensitive to actinic rays of light.
5. To free (someone) from the emotional charge of a neurosis or complex.
6. To make non-image portions of (a lithographic stone or plate) repellent to ink.

Etymology

From de- (“not, do the opposite of, undo”) + sensitize. First attested in the 1900s.