Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To put at a loss as to what to think, say, or do; bewilder.
  • transitive verb Usage Problem To cause to feel indifferent or bored.
  • noun A state of bewilderment or perplexity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To perplex; puzzle; confound; put to a standstill; stop by embarrassment.
  • noun A state in which one is unable to proceed or decide; a state of perplexity; a puzzled condition; inability to say or do more; puzzle: usually in the phrase at or to a nonplus.

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

  • noun A state or condition which baffles reason or confounds judgment; insuperable difficulty; inability to proceed or decide; puzzle; quandary.
  • transitive verb To puzzle; to confound; to perplex; to cause to stop by embarrassment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A state of perplexity or bewilderment.
  • verb transitive to perplex or bewilder someone; to confound or flummox

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

  • verb be a mystery or bewildering to

Etymologies

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

[From Latin nōn plūs, no more : nōn, not; see non– + plūs, more; see pelə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin nōn plūs ("no more, no further")

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Examples

  • Admiration which is the soul's "nonplus," its doing it knows not what, the winding of it up until it stands still, ready to break -- is all that we can arrive unto in the consideration hereof.

    The Sermons of John Owen 1616-1683 1968

  • Providence itself to a kind of nonplus, to attemper any dispensation of it to an universal acceptance; any more than that glorious fountain of light, the sun, can shine upon all the corners of the earth at once.

    Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions. Vol. V. 1634-1716 1823

  • The Insurance Companies are scum, and maybe private citizens can form competitive nonplus one profits to compete with them.

    Steele: No guilt trip after Kennedy death 2009

  • Which, for ‘nonplus’ v. gives ‘1. surprise and confuse; flummox 2. as adj. nonplussed unperturbed’.

    Friday! June 26 – The Bleat. 2009

  • He was so preoccupied with the effect he wished to produce, that a practical joke, Blondet, had bet once or twice, and won the wager, that he could nonplus him at any moment by merely looking fixedly at his hair, or his boots, or the tails of his coats.

    Modeste Mignon 2007

  • Kirk was happy to claim extraordinary knowledge and nonplus Perrit and I've never seen him since back off this comment or apologize for its inaccuracy.

    Mark Kirk Knew Better Than Did His Constitutents; We Were Supposed to Trust Him and WWII Proved Him Out...Right? Ellen Beth Gill 2006

  • You'll remember in his 2002 debate with Democratic candidate Hank Perritt, he used his military background and supposed extra insider information to nonplus Prof.

    Archive 2006-11-01 Ellen Beth Gill 2006

  • You'll remember in his 2002 debate with Democratic candidate Hank Perritt, he used his military background and supposed extra insider information to nonplus Prof.

    Bygones are not bygones on Iraq because nothing is by and nothing is gone Ellen Beth Gill 2006

  • But Sir Condy all this time, and a great while afterwards, was at a terrible nonplus; for he had no liking, not he, to stage-plays, nor to Miss Isabella either — to his mind, as it came out over a bowl of whisky-punch at home, his little Judy

    Castle Rackrent 2006

  • Kirk was happy to claim extraordinary knowledge and nonplus Perrit and I've never seen him since back off this comment or apologize for its inaccuracy.

    Archive 2006-09-01 Ellen Beth Gill 2006

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