• (British) IPA: /əˈmeɪz/

amaze (amazes, present participle amazing; past and past participle amazed)

1. (transitive) To fill with wonder and surprise; to astonish, astound, surprise or perplex. [from 16th c.]

   He was amazed when he found that the girl was a robot.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Matthew 12:23 ↗:

     And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?

   • Spain has long fallen from amazing Europe with her wit, to amusing them with the greatness of her Catholic credulity.

2. (intransitive) To undergo amazement; to be astounded.
3. (obsolete) To stupefy; to knock unconscious. [13th-17th c.]
4. (obsolete) To bewilder; to stupefy; to bring into a maze.
   • 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venvs and Adonis, London: Imprinted by Richard Field, […], OCLC 837166078 ↗; Shakespeare’s Venvs & Adonis: […], 4th edition, London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent and Co. […], 1896, OCLC 19803734 ↗:

     a labyrinth to amaze his foes

5. (obsolete) To terrify, to fill with panic. [16th-18th c.]
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗:

     , New York Review Books 2001, p.261:

     [Fear] amazeth many men that are to speak or show themselves in public assemblies, or before some great personages […]

• amazing
• amazement

• French: stupéfier
• German: verwundern
• Portuguese: espantar, surpreender
• Russian: изумля́ть
• Spanish: pasmar, sorprender, asombrar

amaze (uncountable)

1. (now poetic) Amazement, astonishment. [from 16th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ii:

     All in amaze he suddenly vp start / With sword in hand, and with the old man went [...].

   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 103:

     Shattuck looked at him in amaze.

   • 1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1361:

     She took the proffered cheque and stared at it with puzzled amaze, dazed by her own behaviour.