STUNNED

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does stunned mean? 

• STUNNED (adjective)
  The adjective STUNNED has 3 senses:

1. filled with the emotional impact of overwhelming surprise or shock

2. knocked unconscious by a heavy blow

3. in a state of mental numbness especially as resulting from shock

  Familiarity information: STUNNED used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STUNNED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Filled with the emotional impact of overwhelming surprise or shock

Synonyms:

amazed; astonied; astonished; astounded; stunned

Context example:

stunned scientists found not one but at least three viruses

Similar:

surprised (taken unawares or suddenly and feeling wonder or astonishment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Knocked unconscious by a heavy blow

Synonyms:

kayoed; knocked out; KO'd; out; stunned

Similar:

unconscious (not conscious; lacking awareness and the capacity for sensory perception as if asleep or dead)

Sense 3

Meaning:

In a state of mental numbness especially as resulting from shock

Synonyms:

dazed; stunned; stupefied; stupid

Context example:

was stupid from fatigue

Similar:

confused (mentally confused; unable to think with clarity or act intelligently)

 Context examples 

Maria was too stunned for speech.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I was myself half stunned and looked in wonder at one after another.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He fell to the floor, half stunned for the moment, breathing heavily and blinking his eyes in a stupid sort of way.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I was still giddy with the shock of my mother's death, and in a kind of stunned state as to all tributary things.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was so stunned by this sudden shock that for a time I must have nearly lost my reason.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was like a man stunned.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The feeling, the announcement sent through me, was something stronger than was consistent with joy—something that smote and stunned.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In an instant I was stunned with a blow and bound hand and foot.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Half-stunned by the blow, Buck was knocked backward and the lash laid upon him again and again, while Spitz soundly punished the many times offending Pike.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Burley lay senseless, stunned by a blow from a mace, and half of the men-at-arms lay littered upon the ground around him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)