insensitive
/ɪnˈsɛnsɪtɪv
/adjective
1Showing or feeling no concern for others' feelings: an insensitive remark...
- Well, if he is two-faced, self-centred, plausibly insincere, manipulative and insensitive… be concerned.
- Prepare your child for insensitive questions or uncaring remarks that may come from adults when the SEA results are out.
- His remarks are also particularly insensitive as we approach the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings when so many soldiers gave their lives to help liberate Europe.
Synonyms
heartless, unfeeling, inconsiderate, thoughtless, thick-skinned, hard-hearted, stony-hearted, cold-hearted, cold-blooded, with a heart of stone, as hard as nails, lacking compassion, compassionless, uncaring, unconcerned, unsympathetic, unkind, callous, hard, harsh, cruel, merciless, pitiless, unpitying, uncharitable, inhuman
impervious to, oblivious to, unaware of, unappreciative of, unresponsive to, indifferent to, unaffected by, unmoved by, untouched by, immune to
informal in the dark about
rare incognizant of, nescient of
2Not sensitive to a physical sensation: she was remarkably insensitive to pain...
- Oxygen utilization that was insensitive to KCN and sensitive to SHAM was indicative of the presence of the alternative pathway.
- Diploid clones insensitive to rotenone and sensitive to antimycin A + myxothiazol were selected.
- The paradox is that tilapia islets produce insulin in a very glucose sensitive manner but simultaneously appear to be peripherally insensitive to insulin.
2.1Not aware of or able to respond to something: both were in many ways insensitive to painting...
- Rules have distinct advantages as behavioral guides, but they can promote rigid responding that is insensitive to changed contingencies.
- We should point out that Rosenberger is by no means insensitive to the responsibilities of those dishing out satire and ridicule.
- Many meat processors in the state feel that the USDA inspection service is inflexible and insensitive to their needs.
Derivatives
insensitively
/ adverb ...- It is a natural response from a wounded community that has been treated insensitively by the central government.
- Towns are also suffering badly from development which damages their individual character, is insensitively sited, or which threatens local businesses.
- I would like to see the site developed but the scale of this proposed development is insensitively huge.
insensitiveness
/ noun ...- And, finally, there was the unforgettable anger of one of the two HIV infected persons invited to speak when he perceived a tone of insensitiveness in a question, a signal that many of us have still to change our attitudes.
- Low self-control included the following factors: lack of resistance to immediate gratification, impulsiveness, insensitiveness, physical risk taking, shortsightedness, and being unable to express problems.
- Paternalism must not be totally rejected because it is sometimes confused with authoritarianism - the latter reflects insensitiveness, disrespect for patient autonomy and integrity, and desire for power.
- Royal Ballet
- royal bay
- royal Bengal
- royal binding
- royal blue
- Royal Borough
- Royal British Legion
- royal burgh
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police
- royal catchfly
- royal cell
- Royal Command Performance
- Royal Commission
- royal demesne
- Royal Doulton
- royal duke
- royal eagle
- Royal Engineers
- royal evil
- royal family
- royal fern
- royal fish
- royal flush
- Royal Flying Doctor Service
- Royal Free disease