flabbergast
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Pronunciation [edit]
Etymology [edit]
Origin uncertain. Hotten says it is from Old English[1]; Whitney and Smith suggests flabby or flap (strike) + gast (astonish)[2]; The Imperial Dictionary connects it with flabber (related to flap, to strike) + the root of aghast, and notes that flabagast may have been the root (to strike aghast)[3]; first documented as slang in 1772; [4] Cassell gives it as dialectical from Suffolk, from flap or flabby + aghast, possibly related to Scottish flabrigast (to boast) or flabrigastit (worn out with exertion)[5]; Smith relates it to flab (to quake) or flap (to make a flap over something) + Middle English agasten (to terrify), and relates it to aghast, ghastly and ghost[6]
Verb [edit]
flabbergast (third-person singular simple present flabbergasts, present participle flabbergasting, simple past and past participle flabbergasted)
- (transitive) To overwhelm with bewilderment; to stun, confound or amaze, especially with ludicrous affect.[7] [8]
- He was flabbergasted to find that his work had been done for him before he began.
- Her stupidity flabbergasts me, and I have to force myself to keep a straight face while she explains her beliefs.
- I love to flabbergast the little-minded by shattering their preconceptions about my nationality and gender.
- The oddity of the situation was so flabbergasting I couldn't react in time for anyone to see it.
- 1772. Edmund Burke. The Annual Register, Dec. 15, 1772. "On New Words". Longmans, Green. page 191.
- Now we are flabbergasted and bored from morning to night — in the senate, at Cox's museum, at Ranelagh, and even at church.
- 1861. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Insulted and Injured. Kessinger Publishing. page 258.
- Well, some degree of the same pleasure may be experienced when one flabbergasts some romantic Schiller, by putting out one's tongue at him when he least expects it.
- 1926. Austin Harrison. Frederic Harrison: Thoughts and Memories. W. Heinemann. page 189.
- For instance, I could offend, shock, annoy, distress and flabbergast your father utterly in five minutes, but the more I tried to offend, shock, distress or flabbergast Henry James, the more disinterestedly sympathetic he would appear.
- 1956. John Thomas Flynn. The Roosevelt Myth. Ludwig von Mises Institute. page 50.
- He loved to flabbergast his associates by announcing some startling new policy without consulting any of them.
- 2008. Harry Turtledove. The United States of Atlantis. Penguin. page 240.
- "The idea may surprise you, but I intend that it shall flabbergast the poor foolish Englishmen mured up behind those pine and redwood logs. Flabbergast 'em, I say!"
Quotations [edit]
- For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.
Translations [edit]
To overwhelm with wonder; to stun or amaze
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Derived terms [edit]
Alternative forms [edit]
Synonyms [edit]
Noun [edit]
flabbergast (plural flabbergasts)
- (uncountable) Overwhelming surprise, confusion or shock.[9]
- When I saw my house on fire, the flabbergast overcame me and I just stood and stared, too shocked to comprehend what I was seeing.
- His flabbergast was so great he couldn't even come up with a plausible answer.
- 1868. Oliver Optic's magazine: Our boys and girls, Volumes 3-4 . Lee and Shepard. page 117.
- Then quit your flabbergast, and talk in plain English.
- 2000. James Carlos Blake. Red Grass River: A Legend. HarperCollins. page 52.
- Bob's big-eyed flabbergast struck him as comic and he laughed and said, “Lying sack, hey?”
- (countable) An awkward person.[10]
Quotations [edit]
- For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.
Synonyms [edit]
- Wikisaurus:surprise and Wikisaurus:confusion (overwhelming surprise or shock): astonishment, astoundedness, awe, flabbergastment, shock, stupefaction, surprise
- Wikisaurus:dork (an awkward person): dork, dweeb, geek, flabagast
Alternative forms [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ 1860, John Camden Hotten, A dictionary of modern slang, cant, and vulgar words[1], page 140:
- ^ 1897, William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin Eli Smith (Eds.) editor, The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: Dictionary[2], Century, page 2245:
- ^ 1883, John Ogilvie; Charles Annandale, The imperial dictionary of the English language[3], Blackie & Sons, page 285:
- ^ 1772 December 15, “New Words”, in Annual Register[4], Quotidian, page 190:
- ^ 2005, Jonathan Green, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang[5], Sterling Publishing Company, page 511:
- ^ 2006, Chrysti M. Smith, Verbivore's Feast: Second Course: More Word & Phrase Origins, Farcountry Press, page 126:
- ^ 1897, William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin Eli Smith (Eds.) editor, The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: Dictionary[6], Century, page 2245:
- ^ 1900, Joseph Wright (Ed.) editor, The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect[7], H. Frowde, page 376:
- ^ 2005, Jonathan Green, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang[8], Sterling Publishing Company, page 511:
- ^ 2005, Jonathan Green, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang[9], Sterling Publishing Company, page 511:
