arresting
/əˈrɛstɪŋ
/adjective
Striking; eye-catching: at 6 ft 6 in he was an arresting figure...
- It is a pity that there exists no serious biography of Archibald Wavell, an intriguing and arresting figure.
- Joseph is a good enough accompanist, but Jonah has a voice of extraordinary, arresting beauty: ‘my brother sings to save the good and make the wicked take their own lives’.
- Seeing this familiar image of Christ overlooking the Final Judgment rendered in such an unusual manner has an arresting effect on the viewer.
Synonyms
striking, eye-catching, conspicuous, noticeable, dramatic, impressive, imposing, spectacular, breathtaking, dazzling, amazing, astounding, astonishing, surprising, staggering, stunning, sensational, awesome, awe-inspiring, engaging;
remarkable, notable, noteworthy, distinctive, extraordinary, outstanding, incredible, phenomenal, unusual, rare, uncommon, out of the ordinary
informal amazeballs
Derivatives
arrestingly
- Despite some unpolished acting, this conceit is arrestingly carried off: the scenes representing Orpheus's journey into Hades are particularly imaginative in the way they depart from reality without ever actually leaving Rio.
- Therborn, by contrast, in focusing on just one dimension of existence, develops a map of human changes over time that is faithful to the complexity and diversity of the world in an arrestingly new way, omitting no corner of the planet.
- ‘When Britain's sea power was in its prime,’ he began arrestingly, ‘Samuel Pepys ran our Navy almost single-handed.’