daze
/deɪz
/verb [with object]
(Especially of an emotional or physical shock) make (someone) unable to think or react properly: she was dazed by his revelations (as adjective dazed) a dazed expression...
- I was completely dazed and shocked and felt that I had been hit on the head.
- I was dazed and amazed by all the wonderful things the Internet could do.
- I was dazed, I was confused, even more so than I had been in this whole nightmarish chase.
Synonyms
stun, stupefy, knock senseless, knock unconscious, knock out, lay out
informal knock for six, knock the stuffing out of
astound, amaze, astonish, startle, take someone's breath away, dumbfound, stupefy, overwhelm, overcome, overpower, devastate, dismay, disconcert, stagger, shock, confound, bewilder, take aback, nonplus, shake up
informal flabbergast, knock for six, knock sideways, knock the stuffing out of, hit like a ton of bricks, bowl over, floor, blow away
noun [in singular]
A state of stunned confusion or bewilderment: he was walking around in a daze...
- I'm getting home in the evening feeling stunned, and sit there in a daze for the rest of the night.
- He finished the season in a daze and spent the winter wondering what would happen next.
- I walk out of the lapping, transparent water in a daze made up of disbelief as much as exhaustion.
Synonyms
stupor, state of stupefaction, state of shock, trance-like state, haze, confused state, spin, whirl, muddle, jumble;
confusion, bewilderment, distraction, numbness;
Scottish dwam
Derivatives
dazedly
- Blinking dazedly, he managed a wobbly grin in return.
- I blinked dazedly, trying to figure out what had happened.
- I tried not to fumble dazedly so much in my sleepy stupor.
Origin
Middle English: back-formation from dazed (adjective), from Old Norse dasathr 'weary'; compare with Swedish dasa 'lie idle'.
Daze was formed from dazed, from Old Norse dasathr ‘weary’. In English the sense ‘benumb with cold’ may have been the earliest, and it is easy to see how this could develop into the senses confused or unable to operate normally. One development was dazed by excess light, which in the late 15th century developed its own form dazzle. In the USA in the late 19th century this developed in turn into razzle-dazzle, giving the new words razzmattazz (late 19th century) and razzle (early 20th century) from which very quickly developed the phrase on the razzle.