Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To stun, as with a blow; benumb; give a stupefying shock to.
- To stun or strike dumb with sudden fear; confound.
- To strike or impress with wonder, surprise, or admiration; surprise; amaze.
- Synonyms Surprise, Amaze, etc. (see surprise); startle, shock.
Wiktionary
- v. surprise, flabbergast
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To stun; to render senseless, as by a blow.
- v. To strike with sudden fear, terror, or wonder; to amaze; to surprise greatly, as with something unaccountable; to confound with some sudden emotion or passion.
WordNet 3.0
- v. affect with wonder
Etymologies
- Alteration of Middle English astonen, from Old French estoner, from Vulgar Latin *extonāre : Latin ex-, ex- + Latin tonāre, to thunder; see (s)tenə- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“He hid himself, and worked always to astonish, which is an egotism, and therefore little.”
“The Brits must use "astonish" differently than do Yanks.”
“He was far more inspired by avant-garde photographers such as Harper's Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch -- who instructed his students to "astonish" him -- not to mention the free-form improvisations of abstract expressionist painters, new American jazz and the Beat poets, all commingling in New York at the time.”
“When heaven's vast orb first strikes th 'astonish'd sight.”
“_Zadig_, tho 'astonish'd to the last Degree, attended him to their last Stage, which was to the Cottage of a very virtuous and well-dispos'd Widow, who had a Nephew of about fourteen Years of”
“astonish" them; and he thought, not without sadness, that when La Guepe should have published this young novelist's ghostly composition, the unconquerable bourgeoisie would know nothing about it, and would continue to devote itself to its favorite customs, such as tapping the barometer to know whether there was a change, or to heave a deep sigh after guzzling its soup, saying, "I feel better!" without being the least astonished in the world.”
“Hulk tales to astonish fully painted graphic novel”
“The energy, creativity, and enthusiasm they've given us with on this trip simply astonish me.”
The Huffington Post: Lindsay Maines: Creativity, Energy and Extra-Ordinaryness in Kenya
“This system from gasoline to electricity would astonish me if the total conversion efficiency exceeded 10%.”
“Not to force change, but let it inhabit you, astonish you with no determination on your part.”
lydia davis | new year’s resolution « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘astonish’.
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Words that end in "-ish" but aren't adjectives
embellish, flourish, garnish, rubbish, nourish, admonish, punish, finish, blemish, abolish, accomplish, parish and 41 more...
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[Open] Stative Verbs
Definition Many of these can also be dynamic.
Please just list bare infinitives to keep the list wieldy. Perhaps a tag (e.g., “stative”) would be sufficient for participles.)act, amaze, appear, appreciate, astonish, become, believe, belong, cost, feel, get, hate and 53 more...
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