ASTONISH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does astonish mean? 

• ASTONISH (verb)
  The verb ASTONISH has 1 sense:

1. affect with wonder

  Familiarity information: ASTONISH used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASTONISH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they astonish    ... he / she / it astonishes   
Past simple: astonished   
Past participle: astonished   
-ing form: astonishing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Affect with wonder

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

amaze; astonish; astound

Context example:

Your ability to speak six languages amazes me!

Hypernyms (to "astonish" is one way to...):

surprise (cause to be surprised)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "astonish"):

dazzle (amaze or bewilder, as with brilliant wit or intellect or skill)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence examples:

The good news will astonish her
The performance is likely to astonish Sue

Derivation:

astonishment (the feeling that accompanies something extremely surprising)

 Context examples 

Meg jumped up, looking both proud and shy, but 'that man', as Jo called him, actually laughed and said coolly, as he kissed the astonished newcomer, "Sister Jo, congratulate us!"

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Imagination can figure nothing so grand, so surprising, and so astonishing! it looked as if ten thousand flashes of lightning were darting at the same time from every quarter of the sky.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I am astonished, my dear, said Mrs. Bennet, that you should be so ready to think your own children silly.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Astonished at the sight, I leaned forward to pick it off, when, to my horror, it burst between my finger and thumb, squirting blood in every direction.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am astonished you found courage to refuse his hand.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He was astonished, indeed, but his character and general conduct must refute it.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

She was greatly astonished to find herself lying upon the grass, with thousands of mice standing around and looking at her timidly.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Her resolute effort threw back the lid, and gave to her astonished eyes the view of a white cotton counterpane, properly folded, reposing at one end of the chest in undisputed possession!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It astonished her that Tom's sisters could be satisfied with remaining in London at such a time, through an illness which had now, under different degrees of danger, lasted several weeks.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But at the same time there was a suspicious crackling movement beside him, and his astonished eye saw a young spruce sapling bending down above him to strike him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)