stun
Plural: stuns
Verb
Verb Forms: stunned, stunning, stuns
- To render senseless or incapable of action; to shock.
- make senseless or dizzy by or as if by a blow
- "stun fish"
- hit something or somebody as if with a sandbag
- overcome as with astonishment or disbelief
- "The news stunned her"
- To incapacitate; especially by inducing disorientation or unconsciousness.
- To shock or surprise.
- To hit the cue ball so that it slides without topspin or backspin (and with or without sidespin) and continues at a natural angle after contact with the object ball
- To enter a stunned state.
- To confiscate (an unguarded rifle, magazine, piece of equipment, etc.) from an unsuspecting soldier as punishment for neglect.
Noun
- The condition of being stunned.
- That which stuns; a shock; a stupefying blow.
- A person who lacks intelligence.
- The effect on the cue ball where the ball is hit without topspin, backspin or sidespin.
- A low-range setting for an energy weapon that will stun its target but not injure or kill it.
Examples
- Bill tried to stun the snake by striking it on the head.
- He stood there stunned, looking at the beautiful, breath-taking sunrise.
- Her opponent’s triple-word score for ’QUIZZES’ seemed to stun her for a moment.
- In many European countries cattle have to be stunned before slaughtering.
- The celebrity was stunned to find herself confronted with unfounded allegations on the front page of a newspaper.
- The monsters stun when you jump on them.
- Williams will need a lot of stun to avoid going in the middle pocket
Origin / Etymology
Inherited from Middle English stonen, stone (“to astonish, stun, numb”, also stoneyen), probably either directly or indirectly from Anglo-Norman estoner (“to stun, astonish”), from Late Latin *stunāre, from Frankish *stunōn (“to thunder, crash”) or perhaps from an unattested Latin *extonāre (“to thunder out, make a thunderous sound”), from tonāre ("to thunder"; compare Latin attonāre). An alternative etymology derives stonen from Old English stunian (“to smash, thunder”), from Proto-West Germanic *stunōn. See also astonish, astound.
Compare Swedish stöna (“to moan, groan”), Danish stønne (“to moan, groan”), Icelandic stynja (“to moan”), Occitan estonar (“to surprise”), and French étonner (“to surprise”), and more distantly, Dutch steunen (“to groan; support”), German stöhnen (“to groan, moan”), German staunen (“to be astonished, be amazed, marvel at”), and Russian стонать (stonatʹ), стена́ть (stenátʹ, “to moan, groan”).
Scrabble Score: 4
stun: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordstun: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
stun: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary