English

Noun

flabbergaster ‎(plural flabbergasters)

1. A person, thing, fact or event that is flabbergasting, or that causes extreme shock

   • Nothing on earth so delights the Mexican heart as a real flabbergaster of a funeral.

   • 1917. Edward Livermore Burlingame, Robert Bridges, Alfred Dashiell. Scribner's Magazine, Vol. 61. page 143.

     This first flabbergaster was that the new Sultan had decided he wanted at least a third of the construction crew to be made up of Saruvian workers, even though the museum would be built in Austria.

   • 2005. Jonathan Carroll. Outside the Dog Museum. Macmillan. page 197.
2. A state of surprise or fear.^[1]

Verb

flabbergaster ‎(third-person singular simple present flabbergasters, present participle flabbergastering, simple past and past participle flabbergastered)

1. (archaic) To perplex or amaze; to shock or frighten^[2]

   • But I've got an invention in my 'ead — at all events, the notion of an invention , that I ventures to say will work wonders in the terrestrial globe — flabbergaster the world!

   • 1888. Robert Smith Surtees. Hillingdon Hall, or, The cockney squire: a tale of country life. John C. Nimmo. page 155.

References

1. ↑ Joseph Wright (Ed.), editor (1900) The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect, H. Frowde, page 376
2. ↑ Joseph Wright (Ed.), editor (1900) The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect, H. Frowde, page 376