stupefy, v.
(ˈstjuːpɪfaɪ)
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 y⊇ braine. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. i. v. 37 Those [drugs] she ha's, Will stupifie 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 F. Burney 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 Let. to Sir H. G. v, Poems (1633) 365, I which live in the Country without stupifying, am not in darknesse, but in shadow. 1803 M. 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 ˈstupefying vbl. n. 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 M. Howitt tr. 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. |
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Add: ˈstupefyingly adv.
| 1961 in Webster. 1979 P. Roth Ghost Writer (1980) i. 17 It became altogether clear just how stupefyingly unsuited he was to have and to hold anything other than his art. 1981 M. Hatfield Spy Fever i. 46 He had got stupefyingly drunk. |