Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To affect with great wonder; astonish. synonym: surprise.
  • intransitive verb Obsolete To bewilder; perplex.
  • intransitive verb To cause great wonder or astonishment.
  • noun Amazement; wonder.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Astonishment; confusion; perplexity arising from fear, surprise, or wonder; amazement: used chiefly in poetry.
  • To confound with fear, sudden surprise, or wonder; confuse; perplex.
  • To strike with astonishment, surprise, or wonder; astonish; surprise: as, you amaze me; I was amazed to find him there.
  • Synonyms Surprise, Astonish, etc. (see surprise); to confound, stagger, stupefy, dumfound.
  • To wonder; he amazed.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb Archaic To be astounded.
  • transitive verb Chiefly poetic Bewilderment, arising from fear, surprise, or wonder; amazement.
  • transitive verb obsolete To bewilder; to stupefy; to bring into a maze.
  • transitive verb To confound, as by fear, wonder, extreme surprise; to overwhelm with wonder; to astound; to astonish greatly.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb be a mystery or bewildering to
  • verb affect with wonder

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Middle English masen, to bewilder, and from amased, bewildered (from Old English āmasod), both from Old English āmasian, to bewilder : ā-, intensive pref. + *masian, to confuse.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English amasen ("to bewilder, perplex"), from Old English āmasian ("to confuse, astonish"), from ā- (perfective prefix) + *masian ("to confound") from *mæs ("delusion, bewilderment"), from Proto-Germanic *mas-, *masōnan (“to confound, be weary, dream”), from Proto-Indo-European *mā- (“to stupefy”). Akin to Old Norse masa ("to struggle, be confused"), Ancient Greek μάτη (mátē, "folly"), μέμαα (mémaa, "I was eager"). More at automatic.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word amaze.

Examples

  • I. ii.115 (240,4) [You amaze me, ladies] To _amaze_, here, is not to astonish or strike with wonder, but to perplex; to confuse; as, to put out of the intended narrative.

    Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies Samuel Johnson 1746

  • And the fluttering, chirping gentlemen are rubbing their hands in amaze and wondering why they did not do it long ago, it was so very, very simple.

    These Bones shall Rise Again - Essay by Jack London 2010

  • From time to time I forsook my own thoughts to follow him, and I followed in amaze, mastered for the moment by his remarkable intellect, under the spell of his passion, for he was preaching the passion of revolt.

    Chapter 26 2010

  • He stared at it in amaze, his brain a racing wild-fire of hypotheses to account for this far-journeyer who had adventured the night of space, threaded the stars, and now rose before him and above him, exhumed by patient anthropophagi, pitted and lacquered by its fiery bath in two atmospheres.

    THE RED ONE 2010

  • What continues to amaze is the ignorance about addiction.

    Why do American elementary schools equate wine and pot? | Dr Vino's wine blog 2009

  • But, as I said, I was in amaze, and the next I knew was the pang of the entering steel as this clumsy provincial ran me through and charged forward, bull-like, till his hilt bruised my side and I was borne backward.

    Chapter 11 2010

  • He stared at it in amaze, his brain a racing wild-fire of hypotheses to account for this far-journeyer who had adventured the night of space, threaded the stars, and now rose before him and above him, exhumed by patient anthropophagi, pitted and lacquered by its fiery bath in two atmospheres.

    The Red One 1918

  • He stared at it in amaze, his brain a racing wild-fire of hypotheses to account for this far-journeyer who had adventured the night of space, threaded the stars, and now rose before him and above him, exhumed by patient anthropophagi, pitted and lacquered by its fiery bath in two atmospheres.

    The Red One 1918

  • But as I said, I was in amaze, and the next I knew was the pang of the entering steel as this clumsy provincial ran me through and charged forward, bull - like, till his hilt bruised my side and I was borne backward.

    Chapter 11 1915

  • He set her on her feet and stared at her in amaze; she met his enraptured gaze with eyes that shone like twin blue stars.

    The Fairies and the Christmas Child 1912

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.