dumbfounder

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   dated: to astonish or bewilder someone completely

   The unexpected inheritance dumbfoundered the entire family.

2. 2
   noun

   rare: a person or thing that causes complete astonishment

   The final revelation was a dumbfounder that left the audience silent.

The verb is an alteration of dumbfound, a blend of dumb and confound; the rare noun is dumbfound + the agent suffix -er. Dickens's dumbfoundered is the regular past participle of this longer verb.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images