Word forms: 3rd person singular presenttense astonishes, present participle astonishing, past tense, past participle astonished
verb
If something or someone astonishes you, they surprise you very much.
My news will astonish you. [VERB noun]
Her dedication constantly astonishes me. [VERB noun]
Synonyms: amaze, surprise, stun, stagger More Synonyms of astonish
astonish in British English
(əˈstɒnɪʃ)
verb
(transitive)
to fill with amazement; surprise greatly
Word origin
C15: from earlier astonyen (see astonied), from Old French estoner, from Vulgar Latin extonāre (unattested) to strike with thunder, from Latin tonāre to thunder
astonish in American English
(əˈstɑnɪʃ)
verb transitive
to fill with sudden wonder or great surprise; amaze
SIMILAR WORDS: surˈprise
Derived forms
astonishing (asˈtonishing)
adjective
astonishingly (asˈtonishingly)
adverb
Word origin
altered < ME astonien < OFr estoner < VL *extonare (for L attonare) < ex-, intens. + tonare, to thunder
Examples of 'astonish' in a sentence
astonish
Sometimes they look as if they are astonished to see you there, sometimes they just look cross.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Watch a serious game of cricket and you see two teams competing fiercely, but you also see astonishing collaboration.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
I find the hypocrisy astonishing.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
As chairman of his local education committee in Blackburn he had been astonished to find himself chairing the governing bodies of half the schools in the town.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
He said: 'It is astonishing to be that young and to have that knack of being in the right place at the right time.
The Sun (2016)
What that man did was quite literally astonishing.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
It is astonishing to see these tiny birds engaged in such a fierce aerial battle.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
The bulbs in the secret garden must have been much astonished.
Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden (1911)
It is astonishing that something so readily available is so potent.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
That she made that journey at all is to me quite astonishing.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
He says people are astonished when they see him painting.
Improve Your Landscape Painting
And then something astonishing and terrible would happen.
Zindell, David The Broken God (1993)
She was quite astonished by the price.
The Sun (2011)
His appearance makes for a quite astonishing bit of theatre.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
Villagers were astonished to see the flame being put on a coach and driven to the next location.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
Over the years the area has struggled economically but what is happening there at the moment is quite astonishing.
The Sun (2011)
But then they did something astonishing.
Diane Purkiss The English Civil War: A People's History (2006)
And it would be astonishing to find how soon the change is felt if we had no kindred changes to compare with it.
George Eliot Middlemarch (1872)
It is astonishing how much life there is in the British woodland.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
The 40-year-old has seen an astonishing rise in his fortunes.
The Sun (2008)
The sound of the howling was astonishing - not something you could just turn over and ignore.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
Back in the gym, something rather astonishing came of something bad.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
She was astonished to find that she had only four hours' contact time in her first term.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
I find it astonishing that policymakers are only just admitting the need for radical change.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
I am astonished at how much she remembers.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
I find it absolutely astonishing there is talk about him leaving.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
I was absolutely astonished to see the face of a policeman looking in through the open door.