1. To make or to become dull or to render a person insensible: Whenever someone is hebetated, he or she may lose mental alertness and physical responses.

There are some politician's whose political lives seem to hebetate their ethical sensibilities.

2. Etymology: from Latin hebetatus which comes from hebetare, "to make dull, to blunt, to deaden".

Pertaining to some vegetation that has dull or soft points: Cacti are certainly not hebetate plants.