flabbergast
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: The origin of the verb is uncertain; possibly dialectal (Suffolk), from flabby or flap (“to strike”) + aghast. The word may be related to Scottish flabrigast (“to boast”) or flabrigastit (“worn out with exertion”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
Inflected forms:
form: flabbergasts
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: flabbergasting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: flabbergasted
pos: verb
tags: past
form: flabbergasted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: flabbergast
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: flabbergasts
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To overwhelm with bewilderment; to amaze, confound, or stun, especially in a ludicrous manner.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He was flabbergasted to find that his work had been done for him before he began.
Her stupidity flabbergasts me, and I have to force myself to keep a straight face while she explains her beliefs.
The oddity of the situation was so flabbergasting I couldn’t react in time for anyone to see it.
Now we are flabbergaſted and bored from morning to night—in the ſenate, at Cox's muſeum, at Ranelagh, and even at church.
They flabagast good manners and good morals, and only show that one of the parties is vex'd and disappinted.^([sic])
Now, there are assertions, not dissimilar in their power of benumbing and flabbergasting one, but yet within the bounds of sane and perfectly orderly plausibility, for which our language wants a name. Paradox is too hackneyed a term. They ought to be called Buckleisms. When a man makes an assertion clean in the teeth of all previous belief, and makes it coolly, fluently, without proof, and yet as if contradiction were impossible—that is a Buckleism.
Skates that are not quite a fit, my dear Smith, / May flabberghast even a chap of your pith.
At this I was rendered completely flabaghast—for, although the allegation was undeniably correct, I had confidently hoped that my friend Ram was unaware of the fact, or would at least have the ordinary mother-wit to refrain from blurting it out!
Hold on! Let’s have some more of that whisky. Your information’s flabbergasted me, that it has.
Well, some degree of the same pleasure may be experienced when one flabbergasts some romantic Schiller, by putting out one's tongue at him when he least expects it.
He [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] loved to flabbergast his associates by announcing some startling new policy without consulting any of them.
The idea may surprise you, but I intend that it shall flabbergast the poor foolish Englishmen mured up behind those pine and redwood logs. Flabbergast 'em, I say!
Then the most unbelievable thing happened, totally flabbergasting every student in the class.
gloss: An awkward person.
pos: noun
tags: countable
gloss: Overwhelming confusion, shock, or surprise.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: His flabbergast was so great he couldn’t even come up with a plausible answer.
Her foibles were flattery, fine feeling, and flabergast; and if not old enough to be his mother, sufficiently so to be a young aunt.
Then quit your flabbergast, and talk in plain English.
Bob's big-eyed flabbergast struck him as comic and he laughed and said, "Lying sack, hey?"
Translations: