dumbfound
verbUK /ˌdʌmˈfaʊnd/ · US /ˈdʌm.faʊnd/
Etymology Blend of dumb + confound.
1
To confuse and bewilder; to leave speechless.
- A bunch of nice, middle-class women debated on how to "rescue" prostitutes from their "terrible" fate. By invitation, the conference was attended by a number of prostitutes, who dumbfounded those nice, bourgeois ladies by making it clear that they had no desire whatever to be "rescued"1989 December 3, Franklin Kameny, “Prostitution: Good, Right, And Desirable”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 21, page 5:
- Synonyms
- strike dumb, flabbergast
- Derived terms
- dumbfounder, dumbfoundment