Word.ws English Dictionary

on a wonder

on a wonder prepositional phrase: bewildered, perplexed.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (US, colloquial) Bewildered, perplexed.
    • I have taken responsibility in this matter and made a bargain, in which I doubt not every trustee will concur. As I like to put you all on a wonder I will not be very particular now—but only observe that Divine Providence has already more than answered our expectations.1836, John Mason Peck, letter to college treasurer Dr. Haskell, cited in Austen Kennedy de Blois, The Pioneer School, New York: Fleming H. Revell, Chapter 4, p. 70
    • Q. Have you ever heard of any conspiracy, or any agreement among the men, to not tell about it?—A. No, Sir
      Q. Or to hide knowledge of it?—A. No, sir. The most that I have heard among the men, everybody was on a wonder as to who it was that did do it, did do the shooting.1907, United States Senate, Hearings before the Committee on Military Affairs concerning the Affray at Brownsville, Texas, on the night of August 13 and 14, 1906, Washington: Government Printing...

Examples of on a wonder in a sentence

  • It was bad enough for white people, but when one of your own color could be so different it put you on a wonder.1937, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 5, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, University of Illinois Press, published 1978, page 76:
  • Set every mammy-jammer in the graveyard on a wonder!1969, Charles Gordone, No Place to Be Somebody, London: Samuel French, published 1970, act I, page 17:

Questions about on a wonder

What does on a wonder mean?
On a wonder means bewildered, perplexed.
How do you use on a wonder in a sentence?
It was bad enough for white people, but when one of your own color could be so different it put you on a wonder.
What part of speech is on a wonder?
On a wonder is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on a wonder in the dictionary

  1. on a tear
  2. on a tight leash
  3. on a time
  4. on a whim
  5. on a wing and a prayer
  6. on a wonder
  7. on about
  8. on accident
  9. on account
  10. on account of
  11. on acid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on a wonder (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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