[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
† a. Stunning, benumbing, paralysing. Obs. † b. Stupefying, confounding, bewildering. Obs. c. Filling with wonder, surprising, wonderful.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. 1653, 52. Them that have convulsions, or any astonishing disease.
1628. Earle, Microcosm., vi. 15. Some astonishing bombast, which men only till they understand are scared with.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., § 4. What incredible and astonishing actions do we find … tumblers bring their bodies to.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 315, ¶ 9. Circumstances that are both credible and astonishing.
1795. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 296. It is an age of astonishing events. Nothing happens in the ordinary course.
1879. B. Taylor, Stud. Germ. Lit., 64. The marvelous legendary growths which collect around certain names, have an astonishing vitality.
