flabbergast

present singular third person flabbergasts · participle present flabbergasting · past flabbergasted · participle past flabbergasted

1. transitiveTo overwhelm with bewilderment; to amaze, confound, or stun, especially in a ludicrous manner.First known use late 18th c.

   He was flabbergasted to find that his work had been done for him before he began.

   5 more examples

   Her stupidity flabbergasts me, and I have to force myself to keep a straight face while she explains her beliefs.

   The oddity of the situation was so flabbergasting I couldn’t react in time for anyone to see it.

   Now we are flabbergaſted and bored from morning to night—in the ſenate, at Cox's muſeum, at Ranelagh, and even at church.

   1772, “Observator” [pseudonym], “On New Words; from the Same [Town and Country Magazine]”, in Edmund Burke, editor, The Annual Register, or A View of the History, Politics, and Literature, volume XV, London: Printed for J[ames] Dodsley, […], published 1773, →OCLC, page 191, column 1

   They flabagast good manners and good morals, and only show that one of the parties is vex'd and disappinted.^([sic])

   1834, Jack Downing [pseudonym; Seba Smith], chapter XXV, in The Life of Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, Philadelphia, Pa.: Published by T. K. Greenbank, →OCLC, page 183

   Now, there are assertions, not dissimilar in their power of benumbing and flabbergasting one, but yet within the bounds of sane and perfectly orderly plausibility, for which our language wants a name. Paradox is too hackneyed a term. They ought to be called Buckleisms. When a man makes an assertion clean in the teeth of all previous belief, and makes it coolly, fluently, without proof, and yet as if contradiction were impossible—that is a Buckleism.

   1861 August, [David Masson], “Mr. Buckle’s Doctrine as to the Scotch and Their History”, in David Masson, editor, Macmillan’s Magazine, volume IV, number 22, Cambridge; London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, part II (The Weasel-wars of Scotland and the Scottish Reformation), page 316, column 1

   Synonyms: flabbergaster

plural flabbergasts

1. countableAn awkward person.

   Synonyms: dork, dweeb, geek, dork, flabagast, flabaghast, gink, nerd

2. uncountableOverwhelming confusion, shock, or surprise.

   His flabbergast was so great he couldn’t even come up with a plausible answer.

   3 more examples

   Her foibles were flattery, fine feeling, and flabergast; and if not old enough to be his mother, sufficiently so to be a young aunt.

   1852 October, “Adventures of Tom Honeycomb—No. I”, in Yankee Notions, volume 2, number 10, New York, N.Y.: Published by T. W. Strong, […], →OCLC, page 297

   Then quit your flabbergast, and talk in plain English.

   1868 February 22, Oliver Optic [pseudonym; William Taylor Adams], “Freaks of Fortune; or, Half Round the World”, in Oliver Optic, editor, Oliver Optic’s Magazine. Our Boys and Girls, volume III, number 60, Boston, Mass.: Published by Lee and Shepard, […], →OCLC, chapter XVI (Pistols for Two), page 117, column 2

   Bob's big-eyed flabbergast struck him as comic and he laughed and said, "Lying sack, hey?"

   1998, James Carlos Blake, Red Grass River: A Legend, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN; 1st Perennial edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper Perennial, 2000, →ISBN, page 52

   Synonyms: astonishment, astoundedness, awe, dumbfoundedness, flabbergaster, flabbergastation, flabbergastment, stupefaction