▪ I. stun, n.
(stʌn)
[f. stun v.]
1. The act of stunning or dazing; a stunning effect; the condition of being stunned.
| 1727 Thomson Summer 488 [586] Till the stun [later sound] Of a near fall of water every sense Wakes. a 1734 North Life Ld. Kpr. Guilford (1742) 159 The People return'd their joyful Sense of the King's Safety..by numerous Addresses from all Parts of the Kingdom; which gave such a Stun to the rebellious Party..that little Sign of any Resurrection to Action appear'd in them. 1804 Naval Chron. XII. 397 He fainted from the stun. 1836 Ruskin Ess. Lit. Wks. 1903 I. 361 In the first stun of our astonishment. 1887 Poor Nellie (1888) 189 Before poor Adela could recover from the stun of a great astonishment. |
2. A flaw on the surface of a piece of stone. Cf. stun v. 5.
| 1850 Holtzapffel Turning III. 1198 The last marks to be eradicated in the smoothing are generally those called stuns, made in sawing the marble by coarse particles of sand getting between the side of the saw blade and the saw kerf. |
▪ II. stun, v.
(stʌn)
Inflected stunned, stunning. Forms; 6 stonne, 7 ston, 4– stun; pa. tense and pa. pple. 4–7 stund, (4 stunt), 4–5 stoned(e, 5 stonet, stonde, 6–7 stonnd, stonn'd.
[Aphetic a. OF. estone-r (mod.F. étonner): see astone v., of which this is a doublet. Cf. also stony, stoyne vbs.
It has been usual to regard this vb. as representing OE. stunian, to resound; but the sense differs essentially, and the OE. vb. app. did not survive into ME.]
1. a. trans. To deprive of consciousness or of power of motion by a blow, a fall, or the like.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 12280 A child þar kest a-noiþer don Vte of þe loft vnto þe grund, Þe child to ded þar was he stund. c 1400 Laud Troy Bk. 10377 Bothe her swordis out thei drow And ffauȝt to-geder long y-now, Til thei were stoned hede and brayn. c 1420 Avow. Arth. xiii, His stode was stonet, starke ded. c 1475 Partenay 4700 With that stroke he was stoned manyfold. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. vii. 42 Where⁓with he was so stund that he n'ote ryde, But reeled to an fro from East to West. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 165 They kill it [a fish] by first stunning it with a knock with a mallet. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxxiv, At length Du Pont forced Verezzi to the floor, where he lay stunned by the violence of his fall. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville I. 271 The ball, which had been nearly spent before it struck him, had stunned instead of killing him. 1853 Mrs. Gaskell Ruth x, She was as one stunned into unconsciousness;..she hardly breathed. |
| fig. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvi. III. 721 The faction which had been prostrated and stunned began to give signs of returning animation. |
b. Applied to an inanimate or immaterial object.
| 1700 Dryden Cymon & Iphig. 341 The giddy Ship betwixt the Winds and Tides, Forc'd back and forwards, in a Circle rides, Stun'd with the diff'rent Blows. 1911 Sir H. Craik Edw. Ld. Clarendon II. 243 Public credit was shaken; commercial operations were stunned. |
2. a. To daze or astound with some strong emotion or impression.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 17288 + 443 Þen were þai stoned ilkone. No drede, he saide, has ȝe, Lokes side, hand, & fote. 1426 Audelay Poems (Percy Soc.) 78, I was adeuyd [printed adenyd] of that dynt, Hit stonede me. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iv. iv. (1601) H 3 b, Nay you haue stonnd me I fayth? 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 400 Salomons Wealth, it was of that vastnesse, it would..stun the Beliefe of one of our..Rich Misers. 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. (ed. 2) 264 At the sight therefore of this River, the Pilgrims were much stun'd [ed. 1 stounded]. 1802 M. Edgeworth Forester, Catastrophe, Lady Catherine was stunned by this distinct refusal. 1843 Macaulay Ess., Mme. D'Arblay (1897) 673 The multitude, unacquainted with the best models, are captivated by whatever stuns and dazzles them. 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped vi, I sat stunned with my good fortune. |
† b. intr. To be amazed or astounded. Obs.
| 1533 Tindale Supper of the Lord 13 b, Thei beyng yet but feble of fayth..muste here nedis haue wondred, stonned and staggerd. |
3. a. trans. To daze or bewilder with noise or din.
| 1621 Bp. H. King Serm. 25 Nov. 4 A man may heare so much that hee may ston the sense. 1660 Chas. II. in Julia Cartwright Madame (Henrietta of Orleans) (1894) 57 My head is so dreadfully stunned with the acclamations of the people. 1732 Pope Ess. Man i. 202 If nature thunder'd in his op'ning ears, And stunn'd him with the musick of the spheres. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xii, Four half-stripped knaves stunned the neighbourhood with the clang of hammer and stithy. 1910 Q. Rev. July 100 The ear is stunned by the not unmusical roar of the Falls [of Niagara]. |
| absol. 1723 Swift Pethox 76 The Britons, once a savage Kind,..With Limbs robust, and Voice that stuns. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 412 Where..Niagara stuns with thund'ring sound. |
b. hyperbolically.
| 1693 Dryden Juvenal i. 2 Still shall I hear, and never quit the Score, Stun'd with hoarse Codrus' Theseid, o're and o're? 1714 Budgell tr. Theophrastus vi. 22 You shall sometimes see him gather a Crowd round him,..and stun the People with a senseless Story of an Injury that is done him. 1816 Scott Old Mort. ii, An old drunken cavaliering butler, who..stunned the family nightly with his exploits at Kilsythe and Tippermoor. a 1818 M. G. Lewis Jrnl. W. Ind. (1834) 365 Complaints of all kinds stunned me from all quarters. |
† 4. To break or crush with heavy blows. Obs. Cf. stony v. 5.
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur iii. vii. 107 [They] clafe their sheldes and stoned their helmes and brak their hawberkes. |
5. a. To bruise or loosen the surface of (stone, a mineral), so that it splinters or exfoliates. Also, to scratch or tear (a surface) in sawing. b. intr. Of stone, etc.: To exfoliate, peel off in splinters or laminæ.
| 1676 in Phil. Trans. XI. 755 The Mine-men do often strike such forcible strokes with a great Iron-crow, that that stuns the Diamond and so flaws it. 1811 Pinkerton Petral. II. 465 It..has numerous crystals and quadrilateral plates of felspar in perfect preservation, except that it has a dry aspect, and is stunned in some parts. 1843 [see stunning vbl. n.]. 1890 Funk's Stand. Dict. 1911 Webster. |
6. Comb. stun gas, a gas that incapacitates by causing temporary confusion and disorientation; stun grenade, a grenade that only stuns through its sound and flash; stun gun, a gun that fires shot which stuns without causing serious injury.
| 1968 Punch 21 Feb. 253 Here is a run-down of anti⁓crowd devices which other nations, notably America, are developing:..stun gas; gas which temporarily blinds. |
| 1977 Times 19 Oct. 1/4 The ‘stun’ grenades which played such a vital part in enabling the West German commando unit to overcome the terrorists..were supplied by Britain. 1981 A. Winch Blood Money xxi. 236 The stun grenades..looked like unmarked beer cans and provided a deafening explosion, a blinding flash. |
| 1971 Sunday Times 30 May 5 The stun gun has already been used effectively by the Alameda County Sheriff's Department who are called in whenever student riots at Berkeley become too much for the local police. 1975 Nature 13 Feb. 495/3 One hopes that the [polar bear tagging] expedition will be equipped with a supply of stun-guns. |