stupefy
/ˈstjuːpɪfʌɪ
/verb (stupefies, stupefying, stupefied) [with object]
1Make (someone) unable to think or feel properly: the offence of administering drugs to a woman with intent to stupefy her...
- Rachel was stupefied, unable to do anything but stop her trembling lips.
- The challenge is how to properly honor King, without stupefying readers whose eyes glaze at the thought of hearing yet another recitation of the famous ‘I Have A Dream’ speech.
- When I walked out of the movie theatre after seeing the film, I was stupefied.
Synonyms
stun, daze, befuddle, knock senseless, knock unconscious, knock out, lay out, benumb, numb
drug, sedate, anaesthetize, give anaesthetic to, tranquillize, narcotize;
intoxicate, inebriate;
knock out, render unconscious
informal dope
1.1Astonish and shock: the amount they spend on clothes would appal their parents and stupefy their grandparents...
- I felt rather sorry for him, having to find out stuff like this, and after going through my own share of shocks, I knew just how mind-wracking and stupefying this could be.
- Most of the audience with whom I saw the film seemed as stupefied and astonished as I was by the dullness of the proceedings.
- The audience is often stupefied, thinking, ‘Are they really doing that?’
Synonyms
shock, stun, astound, dumbfound, overwhelm, stagger, amaze, astonish, startle, confound, take aback, shake up, leave open-mouthed, take someone's breath away
informal flabbergast, knock for six, knock sideways, hit like a ton of bricks, bowl over, floor, blow away
Derivatives
stupefier
- Alcohol is one of our milder stupefiers and may have made civilization both necessary and possible.
- Man's principal stupefiers are not opiates, or alcohol, or even sugar - but sex, territory and self-advancement.
- Even without artificial stupefiers like alcohol and narcotics to help them, people routinely achieve irrelevance by adhering to or seeking out a maladaptive schema.
stupefying
/ adjective ...- Kitchen denied seven charges of administering a stupefying drug, namely amyl nitrate, to enable him to commit the indecent assaults, and not guilty verdicts were recorded on these charges.
- We recall the voice, convincing and sustained, soaring intrepidly through a mass of stupefying calculation.
- What we're left with is a highly polished domestic drama that is, frankly, a stupefying bore.
stupefyingly
/ adverb [as submodifier]: a stupefyingly tedious task...
- You'll recall that just prior to the mergers, in a stupefyingly narcissistic tribute to themselves, several Côte-St-Luc councillors renamed most of the city's parks in their own honour.
- But traditionally they play a stupefyingly defensive game, as if too much scoring would somehow cause people to doubt their masculinity.
- Their speeches can be stupefyingly boring, as if they are reciting parrot-fashion from books, and full of cliches.
Origin
Late Middle English: from French stupéfier, from Latin stupefacere, from stupere 'be struck senseless'.