thunderstruck
English edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈθʌn.də.stɹʌk/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈθʌn.dɚ.stɹʌk/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file)
Adjective edit
thunderstruck (comparative more thunderstruck, superlative most thunderstruck)
- Astonished, amazed or so suddenly surprised as to be unable to speak.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 856-858:
- 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 198:
- Therefore he whacked the old nigger mercilessly, while a big crowd of his people watched him, thunderstruck, till some man, - I was told the chief's son, - in desperation at hearing the old chap yell, made a tentative jab with a spear at the white man - and of course it went quite easy between the shoulder-blades.
- 1916, G. K. Chesterton, chapter IX, in The Crimes of England:
- And for days Europe and the great powers were thunderstruck, again and yet again, by the news of Turkish forts falling, Turkish cohorts collapsing, the unconquerable Crescent going down in blood.
- 1927-29 — Mohandas Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, Part V, The Fast, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai
- 'Unless the strikers rally,' I declared to the meeting, 'and continue the strike till a settlement is reached, or till they leave the mills altogether, I will not touch any food.' The labourers were thunderstruck.
Synonyms edit
- (astonished): amazed, astonished, astounded, awed, overawed, overwhelmed, speechless, stupefied, surprised
Translations edit
astonished, amazed or so suddenly surprised as to be unable to speak
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