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numbing

RORSCHACH

Senior Member
Farsi-persian
Hi,
What does "numbing" mean here? does it mean "injured" or "crippled"? What does the sentence mean exactly?
The sentence is about World War I.

“The war had reduced the ranks of German men between the ages of nineteen and twenty-two by a 35 percent. ”

source: Madeleine Albright. “Fascism.”
Definition 2 of "numb" (WR dictionary): empty of emotion; stunned: felt numb with grief.

The percentage is such a large one that someone who hears it is likely to be stunned, or shocked.

Thirty five percent of German men between 19 and 22 died in the war. Hearing that the percentage was so high was numbing.
Yes, the word applies to those who are told that statistic – not to the men who died.

The scale of the loss could have been emphasised using a different word, e.g. “a staggering 35 per cent”.
So it means, 35 percent of German army were killed in the war and whoever heard that number got numb by shock of this news. Am I right?
whoever heard that number got numb by shock of this news.
It doesn't necessarily mean that whoever heard it became numb with shock. It means that such a high percentage would ordinarily strike someone as shocking, in the opinion of and as it did the writer.
So it means, 35 percent of German army were killed in the war
I said it before and I'll say it again:

35% of all German males in that age group
35 percent of German army were killed in the war
No.

It means that during the war, 35% of German men in that age group died. Many of them were probably in the army, but they needn't all have been - some may have been in the air force or navy and some may have been civilians. It's not the same as 35% of the army.
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