[f. STUN v. + -ER.]
1. Something that stuns or dazes; something that amazes or astounds.
1847. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, xxxiii. Here was a new stunner—I had been calculating on four or five thousand.
1847. Ld. G. Bentinck, Lett., 30 June, in Croker Papers (1884), III. 128. I have read your article in the Quarterly and think it quite admirable … a complete stunner for the Peel party.
1853. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 55. One tacked on two miles, another ten, and so it went on and on, till it reached the ears of the great Mr. Seedeyman … as he sat in his den penning his ‘stunners’ for his market-day Mercury.
1872. ‘Aliph Cheem’ (Yeldham), Lays of Ind (1876), 56. He … ordered the gunners To fire off some stunners, That the glory of France might be properly told.
2. colloq. A person or thing of extraordinary excellence or attractiveness.
1848. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, xxix. 263. Watch the girl, Sir Frederick. Isn’t she a stunner?
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xlii. The cook … was really a stunner for tarts.
1893. Leland, Mem., II. 278. He knew where to get one for a pound but £2. 10s. would buy a ‘stunner.’
