[f. the vb.] = AMAZEMENT. (Amaze and a maze were often identified.)
† 1. Loss of one’s wits, mental stupefaction, craze. Obs.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. v. To gape and loke as it were in a mase.
1586. Lupton, Thousand Notable Things (1675), 281. The gentleman was stricken in amaze, fell sick, and died.
† 2. Bewilderment, mental confusion. Obs.
1593–1622. R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea, 52. Heaving the lead in fourteene fathoms, wee had ground, which put us all into a maze.
1616. Trav. Eng. Pilgr., in Harl. Misc., I. 351. I was in amaze, and knew not what to do.
1671. Milton, P. R., II. 38. Soon our joy is turn’d Into perplexity and new amaze.
1754. Mrs. Delany, Lett., 278. Our god-daughter is pretty well, still in a whirl and an amaze.
† 3. Loss of presence of mind through terror, panic. Obs.
1601. Weever, Mirr. Martyrs, E viij. What forme most terrour and amaze will show.
1665. Manley, Grotius’s L. Countr. Wars, 811. Thus once more brought into an amaze, they fled absolutely.
a. 1703. Pomfret, Poet. Wks. (1833), 97. Strike the affrighted nations with a wild amaze.
1718. Pope, Iliad, V. 35. Struck with amaze and shame, the Trojan crew Or slain or fled, the sons of Dares view.
1766. Goldsmith, Vic. Wakef., xi. (1857), 63. The whole rout was in amaze.
4. Extreme astonishment, wonder. (Now chiefly poetical, AMAZEMENT being usual in prose.)
1579. Lyly, Euphues (1868), 251. A Cathedrall Church, the very Maiestie whereoff, stroke them into a maze.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., II. 246. His faces owne margent did coate such amazes, That all eyes saw his eies inchanted with gazes.
1647. May, Hist. Parl., III. v. 100. An amaze, that the besieged should continue in such an height of resolution.
1713. Addison, Cato, IV. iii. 58. With pleasure and amaze, I stand transported!
1741. Richardson, Pamela, I. 64. She stood all in Amaze, and look’d at me from Top to Toe.
1880. Howells, Undisc. Country, v. 85. He stared at Ford in even more amaze than anger.
