| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| surprise |
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| SYLLABICATION: | sur·prise |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  s r-pr z |
| TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: sur·prised, sur·pris·ing, sur·pris·es
1. To encounter suddenly or unexpectedly; take or catch unawares. 2. To attack or capture suddenly and without warning. 3. To cause to feel wonder, astonishment, or amazement, as at something unanticipated. 4a. To cause (someone) to do or say something unintended. b. To elicit or detect through surprise. | | NOUN: | 1. The act of surprising or the condition of being surprised. 2. Something, such as an unexpected encounter, event, or gift, that surprises. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English surprisen, to overcome, from Old French surprise, feminine past participle of surprendre, to surprise : sur-, sur- + prendre, to take (from Latin prehendere, pr ndere, to seize; see ghend- in Appendix I). | | OTHER FORMS: | sur·priser —NOUN
sur·prising·ly —ADVERB
| | SYNONYMS: | surprise, astonish, amaze, astound, dumbfound, flabbergast These verbs mean to affect a person strongly as being unexpected or unusual. To surprise is to fill with often sudden wonder or disbelief as being unanticipated or out of the ordinary: “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity” (George S. Patton). Astonish suggests overwhelming surprise: The sight of such an enormous crowd astonished us. Amaze implies astonishment and often bewilderment: The violinist's virtuosity has amazed audiences all over the world. Astound connotes shock, as from something unprecedented in one's experience: We were astounded at the beauty of the mountains. Dumbfound adds to astound the suggestion of perplexity and often speechlessness: His question dumbfounded me, and I could not respond. Flabbergast is used as a more colorful equivalent of astound, astonish, or amaze: “The aldermen … were … flabbergasted; they were speechless from bewilderment” (Benjamin Disraeli).
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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