agoggle

comparative more agoggle · superlative most agoggle

1. Goggling: (of a person or face) staring with wide eyes; (of eyes) opened wide to stare.

   [He] was agoggle with surprise.

   1969, Patricia Highsmith, chapter 25, in The Tremor of Forgery, Penguin, published 1987, page 234

   3 more examples

   his starting eyes / Both wide agoggle, twice their size.

   1859, J. Stanyan Bigg, “Urban, the Monk”, in Lays of the Sanctuary and Other Poems, London: E. Good, page 277

   I turned, to discover Louise’s face, pressed against the glass, a-goggle with worry and concern.

   1977, Nigel Williams, My Life Closed Twice, London: Faber and Faber, published 1986, Part 3, Chapter 20, p. 169

   The boys, still young, not yet enamored of kung fu, would sprawl below the soft brown sofa, legs and hands entangled, eyes agoggle at the screen.

   2008, N. S. Köenings, “Sisters for Shama”, in Theft, New York: Back Bay Books / Little, Brown, page 193

2. Amazed (at something).

   a. 1839, William Eaton, “An Essay” cited in James Nack, Earl Rupert, and Other Tales and Poems, New York: George Adlard, 1839, p. 128, such poetry as this / Must set you all a-goggle!

   2 more examples

   […] the Crows were agoggle at the results of Jim’s dickering.

   1970, Marian T. Place, chapter 9, in Mountain Man, London: Crowell-Collier, page 88

   […] a mysterious intruder leaving diminutive size-six footprints had residents agoggle.

   2008, Michael Norman, chapter 21, in Haunted Homeland,, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, page 390