astonisher

plural astonishers

1. Something that astonishes; an astonishing thing or event.

   (colloquial)

   4 more examples

   […] the railroad between Leghorn and Pisa […] has already begun to astonish Italy with a precedent of punctuality, order, plain dealing, and improvement—the most dangerous and heretical astonisher of all.

   1846, Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy, London: […] Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC, page 156

   1858, Abraham Lincoln, debate with Stephen A. Douglas on 10 July, 1858 in Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln, 1832-1865, London: J.M. Dent and New York: Dutton, 1907, p. 88, It [this court decision] is the first of its kind; it is an astonisher in legal history; it is a new wonder of the world;

   He [the king pretending to be a peasant] was always frightening me, always breaking out with fresh astonishers, in new and unexpected places.

   1889, Mark Twain, chapter 27, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, New York: Charles L. Webster, page 350

   Well, if life were tragedy, it still was life, the ultimate astonisher.

   1943, Dorothy Richardson, “Data for a Spanish Publisher”, in Journey to Paradise, London: Virago, published 1989, page 139

   Synonyms: astonishment, marvel, surprise, wonder, shocker, stunner

2. Someone who astonishes.

   […] God, before whom all Nations are as nothing, thou Astonisher of all Flesh, thou art even too Wonderful for me,

   1675, William Bayly, “The Life of Enoch again Revived”, in A Collection of the Several Wrightings of […] William Bayly, published 1676, page 146

   2 more examples

   […] when they [the guides for tourists] excite an exclamation of wonder, they never sympathise with it, but treat it as a matter of course that you should be the astonished, and they the astonishers.

   1843, Mr. & Mrs. S. C. Hall, Ireland: Its Scenery, Character, &c., London: Jeremiah How, Volume 3, p. 155, footnote

   1987, Gary Jennings, Spangle, New York: Atheneum, “France,” Chapter 8, p. 867, The equestrian director introduced her with almost Florian-florid superlatives-the wonder of her time, the astonisher of even the most jaded connaisseurs du cirque, and so on and so on-but still keeping a mystery Mademoiselle Mystère’s specialty.

3. UScomputingAn exclamation mark, the punctuation mark “!”.

   1874, The American Observer, New Series, Volume 1, “Rejoinder,” p. 525, “ […] Nothing whatever” ! (the italics are “S. S. C.’s,” the “astonisher” is mine.)

   2 more examples

   1947, Stewart Holbrook, The Story of American Railroads, American Legacy Press, 1981, Chapter 39, p. 443, More often than not these prophets […] belong to the oh-the-wonder-of-it-all school, who point to the sky as the new and sole artery of travel and transportation and marvel, in complete awe—which they indicate by running over with astonishers!—at the thought of monstrous planes hauling the freight and passengers of the nation, even of the world.

   1984, Richard Hauer Costa, “The Grisly Graphics of Malcolm Lowry” in Gordon Bowker and Paul Tiessen (eds.), Proceedings of the London Conference on Malcolm Lowry, Goldsmith’s College, University of London and The Malcolm Lowry Review, Wilfrid Laurier University, p. 100, An ad for a boxing match can symbolize the uncommunicable, with its curious shape-of-the-type configurations—¡BOX!, with the ‘astonisher’ written upside down before the word and right side up after.

4. USjournalismA short line of smaller type above (or sometimes below) the main headline of an article, usually placed flush-left.

   Synonyms: kicker, overline, read-in, whiplash

5. journalismA headline or lead (introductory paragraph) designed to capture attention through a surprising statement.

   He reveled in socking the reader right in the eye with an “astonisher.”

   1969, Shandy Hill, chapter 17, in Dear Sir: You Cur, Philadelphia: Whitmore Publishing, page 119

   Synonyms: cartridge lead, punch lead, shocker lead