[a. F. consternation or ad. L. consternātiōn-em, n. of action or state f. consternāre: see prec.] Amazement and terror such as to prostrate one’s faculties; dismay.
1611. Cotgr., Consternation, astonishment, dismay.
1626. Donne, Serm., iv. 38. It is a question of consternation, a question that should strike him that should answer it dumb.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. (1843), 17/1. The effects of this overthrow … produced … a general consternation over the face of the whole nation.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. 303. Such was the public consternation, when the barbarians were hourly expected at the gates of Rome.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), II. ix. 345. They regarded the reforming measures of the parliament with dismay and consternation.
