flabbergast
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of flabbergast
Explanation
To flabbergast is to shock, awe, bowl over. For something to flabbergast you, it ought to leave you sputtering in amazement. The word flabbergast dates back to 1772, but its origin is unknown. Perhaps its creator had in mind both being aghast and the sputtering sound made by people who are so amazed, they can barely speak. To flabbergast is to shock, so some events that might flabbergast you include winning the lottery, hearing that your best friend and his family moved to Switzerland yesterday without telling you, or getting stuck in a snowstorm in April in Texas.
Vocabulary lists containing flabbergast
The Infinite Questions of Dottie Bing
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What Stars Are Made Of
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Novel Study: Untwine, Chapters 1–23
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Though I generally stuck to the main questline and sidequests, the optional tombs that I sampled were diverting puzzle boxes that sometimes stumped me but didn’t flabbergast me.
From Washington Post • Sep. 10, 2018
Sections on the possibility of artificial consciousness would flabbergast even Philip K. Dick.
From New York Times • Aug. 16, 2018
A feature on jargon in "soccer" - the American terms that leave Brits reeling and the British terms that flabbergast Americans - generated a huge response from readers.
From BBC • Jun. 1, 2013
It is intended to flabbergast, enlighten and amuse visitors to this year's world's fairs in San Francisco and New York City.
From Time Magazine Archive
In forests where never the ironbark grew, When Jim is at work, it would flabbergast you To see how the ironbarks dwindle.
From The Poems of Henry Kendall With Biographical Note by Bertram Stevens by Kendall, Henry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
