Dictionary

insentient en · ADJ

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English in- English sentient English insentient From in- + sentient.

Meanings

1. Having no consciousness or feeling; inanimate.
   • [O]ver her flayed, exposed soul of a young girl who had gone open and warm to give herself to the children, there set a hard, insentient thing, that worked mechanically according to a system imposed. 1915, DH Lawrence, The Rainbow, Vintage, published 2011, page 367:
   • "Mr Carrados happens to be blind, Mr Spinola," interposed Copling, seeing that their host was so far in ignorance of the fact. "Impossible! Impossible!" exclaimed Spinola, riveting his own very bright eyes on his guest's insentient ones. 1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:
2. (rare) Insensitive, indifferent.
   • His thought is tied, the curving prow / Of motion moored to rock; / And minutes burst upon a brow / Insentient to shock. 1941, Theodore Roethke, “Death Piece”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC, page 4:

Forms

Translations (3)

bg неодушевен (having no consciousness or animation) · cs necitlivý (having no consciousness or animation) · hi अचेतन (having no consciousness or animation)