v. Also 7 stupefie, 7–8 stupifie, 6–9 stupify. [a. F. stupéfi-er (16th c.), ad. L. stupefacĕre to make stupid or senseless, f. stupēre to be struck senseless, be amazed: see -FY.
The spelling with i (cf. liquify) was common until the latter half of the 19th c. ‘This word should … be spelled stupefy; but the authorities are against it’ (Johnson).]
1. trans. To make stupid or torpid; to deprive of apprehension, feeling or sensibility; to benumb, deaden.
a. 1600[?]. in Lyly’s Wks. (1902), III. 497. Twas not Tobacco stupifyed ye braine.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. v. 37. Those [drugs] she ha’s, Will stupife and dull the Sence a-while.
1652. Hermeticall Banquet, 69. This by the narcoticall Sulphur of the Opium, stupefied the Nerve.
1709. T. Robinson, Vindic. Mosaick Syst., 56. That any one … should be so stupified by the Prevalency of his Lusts, as to deny the Being of that God, whose [etc.].
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet (1736), 365. Opiate and anodyne Substances which stupify and relax the Fibres.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), VI. xxx. Your fingers being … stupefied by the cold.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 666. The prisoner, stupified by illness, was unable … to understand what passed.
1889. Mrs. Oliphant, Poor Gentl., xlv. His anxiety stupefied instead of quickening his senses.
fig. 1874. Spurgeon, Treas. David, lxxxi. IV. 26. No dulness should ever stupify our psalmody.
b. absol.
1691. Hartcliffe, Virtues, 81. As nothing doth restore us more to our selves, when we faint and are weary, than Sleep soberly taken, so nothing doth more stupifie, than its Excess.
1707. Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 81. If the Bath be so long continu’d as to stupifie.
a. 1848. W. A. Butler, Serm., ix. (1849), 149. Satan,… who deceives that he may destroy, stupifies that he may deceive.
2. To stun with amazement, fear, or the like; to astound. [So L.]
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. iii. 17. With great amazement they were stupefide.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 337. The apprehension of the continuance of intollerable Vsurie in England, is able to stupifie a mans senses.
1779. Mirror, No. 11, ¶ 13. He sat, stupified with shame and remorse.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, VI. iii. III. 175. ‘If she is not in the rooms to-night,’ said Sir Sedley, ‘I shall be stupified to petrifaction.’
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., viii. (1879), 171. The mind is stupified in thinking over the long, absolutely necessary, lapse of years.
1909. Engl. Rev., Feb., 602. All these people seem stupefied by the immensity of the calamity which has befallen them.
† 3. To deprive (a material substance) of mobility. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1626. Bacon, Physiol. Rem., Baconiana (1679), 100. This stupifieth the Quick-silver that it runneth no more. Ibid., 122. When it … is not fluent, but stupified.
4. intr. To become stupid or torpid; to grow dull or insensible. Now rare.
a. 1631. Donne, Lett. to Sir H. G., v. Poems (1633), 365. I which live in the Country without stupifying, am not in darknesse, but in shadow.
1803. Mary Charlton, Wife & Mistress, III. 47. Do not go and stupify with such an old illuminée as the Dowager Lady Melville.
1844. Syd. Smith, in Lady Holland, Mem. (1855), II. 523. I always fatten and stupefy on such diet; I want to lose flesh and gain understanding.
Hence Stupefying vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1611. Cotgr., Noix vomique … is of a poisonous, deadly, and stupifying qualitie.
1637. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., II. viii. The dead-numming Night-shade! The stupifying Hemlock!
1673. Penn, Chr. Quaker, xx. 585. The Stupifyings of Sin.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Wine, The Effects they have upon the human Body are rather stupifying than inebriating.
a. 1768. Secker, Serm. (1770), IV. 27. The benumbing and stupefying of so important a Principle of their Nature.
1863. Mary Howitt, trans. F. Bremer’s Greece, II. xvi. 155. A cave, out of which … a stupefying exhalation ascended.
1916. Blackw. Mag., May, 607/1. The views obtained are almost stupefying in their majesty and grandeur.
