Verb (used with object) : He blunted the knife by using it to cut linoleum. ,Wine first excites, then blunts the imagination.    From Dictionary.com. 

The desolation of seeing his supposedly infallible moral sword blunted and useless, the first time he'd ever really got to unsheathe it.    From Wordnik.com.  [Country of the Blind]

I considered Butto, but all the corruption charges kind of blunted the message.    From Wordnik.com.  [C in C] Reference

Of course, if it's not correct, Clinton's camp can claim they "blunted" the rollout with their wins.    From Wordnik.com.  [Obama Spokesman: We Don't Have Any Secret Bloc Of Super-Delegates] Reference

Speaking about this, Hughes says that Wright-Phillips 'enthusiasm for the game was "blunted" somewhat.    From Wordnik.com.  [Soccer Blogs - latest posts] Reference

His blunted share's hard tooth, scoops from a tree.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Georgics] Reference

The foreman's blunted fingers probed for broken bones.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Girl from Sunset Ranch Or, Alone in a Great City] Reference

"He is young to be blunted and coarsened," thinks Philip.    From Wordnik.com.  [When the Birds Begin to Sing] Reference

It is well that this acuteness of feeling soon becomes blunted.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Fifth Battalion Highland Light Infantry in the War 1914-1918] Reference

His own offence counted as naught, so blunted was his moral sense.    From Wordnik.com.  [Rabbi and Priest A Story] Reference

The pain had ceased, for the intense cold blunted my sense of feeling.    From Wordnik.com.  [Woman on the American Frontier] Reference

They had, in effect, a ready-made craft not unlike a canoe with blunted bows.    From Wordnik.com.  [Storm Over Warlock] Reference

Last January's "month of Africa" at the United Nations blunted such criticism.    From Wordnik.com.  [Will The 'Dark Continent' Still Matter?] Reference

As I told you, in the presence of so much death the sensibilities are blunted.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Johnstown Horror!!! or, Valley of Death, being A Complete and Thrilling Account of the Awful Floods and Their Appalling Ruin] Reference

The timing of the Berger leak blunted the impact of the 9/11 commission report.    From Wordnik.com.  [Capitol Letter: Much Ado About Little] Reference

The special senses -- sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch -- may all be blunted.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Art of Living in Australia ; together with three hundred Australian cookery recipes and accessory kitchen information by Mrs. H. Wicken] Reference

So you try to be ultra-sharp, even though you've blunted yourself during the build-up.    From Wordnik.com.  [Footballers playing under the influence] Reference

He picked up the gleaming blunted crescent and jogged it temptingly under Gusterson's chin.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Creature from Cleveland Depths] Reference

It is only among people of blunted sensibilities that nice table manners count for nothing; for.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Book of Business Etiquette] Reference

But those instruments of American "soft power" have been blunted by years of neglect and misuse.    From Wordnik.com.  [16: Gen. David Petraeus] Reference

Alcohol may have blunted the humiliation of being judged "not quite a gent" at class-conscious Oxford.    From Wordnik.com.  ["William Golding: The Man Who Wrote 'Lord of the Flies'," by John Carey] Reference

The ends of the fiber from such sheep are thick and blunted, on account of having been previously cut.    From Wordnik.com.  [Textiles For Commercial, Industrial, and Domestic Arts Schools; Also Adapted to Those Engaged in Wholesale and Retail Dry Goods, Wool, Cotton, and Dressmaker's Trades] Reference

When Oryn looked over the turned table, Alysia jabbed the blunted end of Saga into the executives chin.    From Wordnik.com.  [Arcana Magi - c.28: Our Hearts as One] Reference

His sight, and hearing, too, were somewhat blunted by age, as yours will be should you live to be as old.    From Wordnik.com.  [Stories Worth Rereading] Reference

For much of grief is blunted and relaxed when the body is permeated by calm, like the sea in fine weather.    From Wordnik.com.  [Plutarch's Morals] Reference

Her commands spill out in a blunted, vibratory string, as if uttered from the back of the Bronx-Manhattan express bus.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Dying Tradition] Reference

In prime areas for both commercial and residential property, the upward price momentum has at the very least been blunted.    From Wordnik.com.  [Japan's Bursting Bubble] Reference

Insensibly we had been sinking deeper and deeper, until, our moral senses blunted, we found excuses to our own consciences.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison Fifteen Years in Solitude] Reference

While it is likely that Baker will do more than simply deliver an ultimatum, his well-honed bargaining tools will be blunted.    From Wordnik.com.  [Jim Baker's Biggest Test] Reference

Other states blunted Nevada's appeal by moving in the same direction, so Nevada found a new niche for uniqueness -- divorce law.    From Wordnik.com.  [Let States Be Entrepreneurs] Reference

And Mad Men's Don Draper blunted his profound mourning with impromptu fisticuffs and a dangerously heightened blood-alcohol level.    From Wordnik.com.  [Top Moments: Seeing Red on Top Chef, Vampire Diaries and Mad Men] Reference

And those same bronze weapons were sheared, nicked, blunted, bent, and broken as they met the harder steel of the commander's sword.    From Wordnik.com.  [Despoilers of the Golden Empire] Reference

The plaintiffs blunted his denial the first time by showing blown-up pictures of Nicole's swollen, bruised face during his testimony.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Trial Winds Down] Reference

However, the switch to electric power steering that came with the 2011 model year has blunted some of the feedback it had previously.    From Wordnik.com.  [Video: Chevrolet Camaro vs Ford Mustang V6 - More and less than the sum of their parts] Reference

He smiles easily, speaks in a flannelly Texas drawl only partially blunted by his 40 years in the New York and international art worlds.    From Wordnik.com.  [Back To The Future] Reference