[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
† 1. Causing distraction, consternation, confusion, dismay; stupefying, terrifying, dreadful. Obs.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. iii. 81. Let thy blowes … Fall like amazing thunder on the Caske Of thy amaz’d, pernicious enemy.
1659. Hammond, On Ps. cvii. 23–30. They meet with terrible amazing tempests.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., III. 542. The amazing Prospects of an angry God and a gaping Hell.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. 93. A dreadful and amazing prodigy.
2. Astounding, astonishing, wonderful, great beyond expectation.
1704. J. Trapp, Abra-Mulé, V. i. 1981. Such amazing Generosity Exceeds Belief.
1717. Lady M. Montague, Lett., II. xlvi. 37. To turn round with an amazing swiftness.
1769. Burke, State Nat., Wks. II. 85. The author’s amazing assertion.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art, I. 4. To observe to what an amazing extent the actual division of matter may be carried.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 335. Great as has been the change in the rural life of England since the Revolution, the change … in the cities is still more amazing.
3. quasi-adv. Wonderfully, astonishingly.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 54. All of whom laughed, and took it in amazing good part.
