Word.ws English Dictionary

stupefy

/ˈst(j)upəˌfaɪ/

stupefy verb: to dull the senses or capacity to think thereby reducing responsiveness; to stun.

Verb

stupefy (third-person singular simple present stupefies, present participle stupefying, simple past and past participle stupefied)

  1. (especially, transitive) To dull the senses or capacity to think thereby reducing responsiveness; to stun.
    • a stupefying drug; a stupefacient
    • He stupefied her by means of chloroform, a general anaesthetic.
  2. (broadly, figuratively, transitive) To astonish or stun, especially as a result of some distressing action.
    • The police's negligence and callousness continued to stupefy her.
    • What if I love you!—This misery / Of your dissatisfaction and misprision / Stupefies me.1917, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “A Bad Beginning”, in Look! We Have Come Through!, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 77
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To deprive a material of the ability to undergo change or movement, especially deformation.
    • The next is, when it is not malleable, but yet it is not fluent, but stupified^([sic]).1631, Francis [Bacon], “IX. Century. [Articles of Enquiry.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn]...

stupefy meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

stupefy in Urdu

سکتے میں آنا, بدحواس کر دینا, دم بخود کر دینا

stupefy in Bengali

হতভম্ব করা, অচেতন করা

stupefy in Malayalam

ബുദ്ധിമാന്ദ്യമുണ്ടാക്കുക, മയക്കുക, ഞെട്ടിക്കുക

stupefy in Kannada

ಬೆರಗುಗೊಳಿಸು, ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯವನ್ನು ಉಂಟು ಮಾಡು, ಸ್ತಬ್ಧಗೊಳಿಸು, ಮಂಕುಮಾಡು, ಗಾಬರಿಗೊಳಿಸು, ಜಡಗೊಳಿಸು

Examples of stupefy in a sentence

  • Our ace in the hole left our opponents stupefied; it isn't every day that an NBA star plays street basketball.
  • Stupefying heat shimmered in the mangrove forest, the sun an unfaceable white glare somewhere overhead.
  • It stupefies more quickly and more cheaply than any hellbrew I have yet encountered.

All 12 example sentences with stupefy

Forms of stupefy

third-person singular presentstupefies
present participlestupefying
past participlestupefied
paststupefied
alternative formstupify

Origin of stupefy

From Middle French stupéfier, from Latin stupefaciō (“strike dumb, stun with amazement, stupefy”), from stupeō (“to be stunned, speechless”) (see English stupid, stupor) + faciō (“to do, make”).

Words formed from stupefy

Questions about stupefy

What does stupefy mean?
Stupefy means to dull the senses or capacity to think thereby reducing responsiveness; to stun.
What is stupefy in Urdu?
Stupefy in Urdu is سکتے میں آنا, بدحواس کر دینا, دم بخود کر دینا. See Stupefy meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is stupefy?
Stupefy is a verb.
How do you pronounce stupefy?
Stupefy is pronounced /ˈst(j)upəˌfaɪ/.
What is the past tense of stupefy?
The past tense of stupefy is stupefied.

Words near stupefy in the dictionary

  1. stupefied
  2. stupefiedness
  3. stupefier
  4. stupefiers
  5. stupefies
  6. stupefy
  7. stupefying
  8. stupefyingly
  9. stupend
  10. stupendious
  11. stupendosity

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stupefy (page history and authors); stupefy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stupefy (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stupefy (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stupefy (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-stupefy.ogg, en-au-stupefy.ogg.

Cite this entry: “stupefy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stupefy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.