amaze

From Middle English *amasen (“to bewilder, perplex”), from Old English āmasian (“to confuse, astonish”), from ā- (perfective prefix) + *masian (“to confound”), from *mæs (“delusion, bewilderment”), from Proto-Germanic *mas-, *masōną (“to confound, be weary, dream”), from Proto-Indo-European *mā- (“to stupefy”). Akin to Old Norse masa (“to struggle, be confused”), Ancient Greek μάτη (mátē, “folly”), μέμαα (mémaa, “I was eager”). More at automatic.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈmeɪz/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -eɪz

amaze (third-person singular simple present amazes, present participle amazing, simple past and past participle amazed)

1. (transitive) To fill with wonder and surprise; to astonish, astound, surprise or perplex. [from 16th c.]

   He was amazed when he found that the girl was a robot.

   • Bible, Matthew xii. 23

     And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?

   • Goldsmith

     Spain has long fallen from amazing Europe with her wit, to amusing them with the greatness of her Catholic credulity.

2. (intransitive) To undergo amazement; to be astounded.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of B. Taylor to this entry?)

3. (obsolete) To stupefy; to knock unconscious. [13th-17th c.]
4. (obsolete) To bewilder; to stupefy; to bring into a maze.
   • Shakespeare

     a labyrinth to amaze his foes

5. (obsolete) To terrify, to fill with panic. [16th-18th c.]
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):

     , New York Review Books 2001, p.261:

     [Fear] amazeth many men that are to speak or show themselves in public assemblies, or before some great personages […]

• amazing
• amazement

amaze (uncountable)

1. (now poetic) Amazement, astonishment. [from 16th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ii:

     All in amaze he suddenly vp start / With sword in hand, and with the old man went [...].

   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 103:

     Shattuck looked at him in amaze.

   • 1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1361:

     She took the proffered cheque and stared at it with puzzled amaze, dazed by her own behaviour.