Inflected stunned, stunning. Forms; 6 stonne, 7 ston, 4– stun; pa. t. and pa. pple. 4–7 stund, (4 stunt), 4–5 stoned(e, 5 stonet, stonde, 6–7 stonnd, stonn’d. [Aphetic a. OF. estone-r (mod.F. étonner): see ASTONE v., of which this is a doublet. Cf. also STONY, STOYNE vbs.
It has been usual to regard this vb. as representing OE. stunian, to resound; but the sense differs essentially, and the OE. vb. app. did not survive into ME.]
1. trans. To deprive of consciousness or of power of motion by a blow, a fall, or the like.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12280. A child þar kest a-noiþer don Vte of þe loft vnto þe grund, Þe child to ded þar was he stund.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 10377. Bothe her swordis out thei drow And ffauȝt to-geder long y-now, Til thei were stoned hede and brayn.
c. 1420. Avow. Arth., xiii. His stode was stonet, starke ded.
c. 1475. Partenay, 4700. With that stroke he was stoned manyfold.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. vii. 42. Wherewith he was so stund that he n’ote ryde, But reeled to and fro from East to West.
1662. J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 165. They kill it [a fish] by first stunning it with a knock with a mallet.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxiv. At length Du Pont forced Verezzi to the floor, where he lay stunned by the violence of his fall.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, I. 271. The ball, which had been nearly spent before it struck him, had stunned instead of killing him.
1853. Mrs. Gaskell, Ruth, x. She was as one stunned into unconsciousness;… she hardly breathed.
fig. 1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvi. III. 721. The faction which had been prostrated and stunned began to give signs of returning animation.
b. Applied to an inanimate or immaterial object.
1700. Dryden, Cymon & Iphig., 341. The giddy Ship betwixt the Winds and Tides, Forc’d back and forwards, in a Circle rides, Stun’d with the diff’rent Blows.
1911. Sir H. Craik, Life Clarendon, II. xxiii. 243. Public credit was shaken; commercial operations were stunned.
2. To daze or astound with some strong emotion or impression.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17288 + 443. Þen were þai stoned ilkone. No drede, he saide, has ȝe, Lokes side, hand, & fote.
1426. Audelay, Poems (Percy Soc.), 78. I was adeuyd [printed adenyd] of that dynt, Hit stonede me.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., IV. iv. (1601), H 3 b. Nay you haue stonnd me I fayth?
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 400. Salomons Wealth, it was of that vastnesse, it would … stun the Beliefe of one of our … Rich Misers.
1678. Bunyan, Pilgr., I. (ed. 2), 264. At the sight therefore of this River, the Pilgrims were much stun’d [ed. 1 stounded].
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Forester, Catastrophe. Lady Catherine was stunned by this distinct refusal.
1843. Macaulay, Ess., Mme. D’Arblay (1897), 673. The multitude, unacquainted with the best models, are captivated by whatever stuns and dazzles them.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, vi. I sat stunned with my good fortune.
† b. intr. To be amazed or astounded. Obs.
1533. Tindale, Supper of the Lord, 13 b. Thei beyng yet but feble of fayth … muste here nedis haue wondred, stonned and staggerd.
3. trans. To daze or bewilder with noise or din.
1621. Bp. H. King, Serm., 25 Nov., 4. A man may heare so much that hee may ston the sense.
1660. Charles II., in Julia Cartwright, Madame (Henrietta of Orleans) (1894), 57. My head is so dreadfully stunned with the acclamations of the people.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. 202. If nature thunder’d in his op’ning ears, And stunn’d him with the musick of the spheres.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xii. Four half-stripped knaves stunned the neighbourhood with the clang of hammer and stithy.
1910. Q. Rev., July, 100. The ear is stunned by the not unmusical roar of the Falls [of Niagara].
absol. 1723. Swift, Pethox, 76. The Britons, once a savage Kind,… With Limbs robust, and Voice that stuns.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 412. Where … Niagara stuns with thund’ring sound.
b. hyperbolically.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, i. 2. Still shall I hear, and never quit the Score, Stun’d with hoarse Codrus’ Theseid, o’re and o’re?
1714. Budgell, trans. Theophrastus, vi. 22. You shall sometimes see him gather a Crowd round him,… and stun the People with a senseless Story of an Injury that is done him.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., ii. An old drunken cavaliering butler, who … stunned the family nightly with his exploits at Kilsythe and Tippermoor.
a. 1818. M. G. Lewis, Jrnl. W. Ind. (1834), 365. Complaints of all kinds stunned me from all quarters.
† 4. To break or crush with heavy blows. Obs. Cf. STONY v. 5.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, III. vii. 107. [They] clafe their sheldes and stoned their helmes and brak their hawberkes.
5. a. To bruise or loosen the surface of (stone, a mineral), so that it splinters or exfoliates. Also, to scratch or tear (a surface) in sawing. b. intr. Of stone, etc.: To exfoliate, peel off in splinters or laminæ.
1676. in Phil. Trans., XI. 755. The Mine-men do often strike such forcible strokes with a great Iron-crow, that that stuns the Diamond and so flaws it.
1811. Pinkerton, Petral., II. 465. It … has numerous crystals and quadrilateral plates of felspar in perfect preservation, except that it has a dry aspect, and is stunned in some parts.
1843. [see STUNNING vbl. sb.].
1890. Funk’s Stand. Dict.
1913. Webster.
Hence Stunned ppl. a.
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., III. 733. My stunned ear tingles to the whizzing tide.
1805. Southey, Madoc, II. xviii. 113. From his shield, The deadening force communicated ran Up his stunn’d arm.
1845. Dickens, Chimes, iii. 96. Trotty … turned his white face here and there, in mute and stunned astonishment.
1868–70. Morris, Earthly Par., III. 456. And to her stunned heart came A flash of hope and pain.
