1. present participle of astound#English|astound

astounding

1. That astounds or astound.

   astounding success; an astounding spectacle

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: Printed by [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, OCLC 932920499 ↗; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, prologue ↗:

     [Y]ou ſhall heare the Scythian Tamburlaine: / Threatning the world with high aſtounding tearms / And ſcourging kingdomes with his conquering ſword.

   • 1785, Henry Boyd (translator) (translator), A Translation of the Inferno (Dante) of Dante Alighieri, in English Verse, Dublin, Volume 1, Canto 7, Stanza 18, p. 285,

     Wasted in darkness down the pitchy wave,

     We saw the STYGIAN pool her borders lave,

     Fed by th’ astounding cataract on high.

   • 1854, Charles Dickens, “A Loophole”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], OCLC 4389957 ↗, book the first (Sowing), page 14 ↗:

     Signor Jupe [...] was also to exhibit "his astounding feat of throwing seventy-five hundred-weight in rapid succession backhanded over his head, thus forming a fountain of solid iron in mid-air, a feat never before attempted in this or any other country [...]."

   • 1930, Dashiell Hammet, “The Emperor’s Gift”, in The Maltese Falcon, New York, N.Y.; London: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, OCLC 919141719 ↗, page 148 ↗:

     This is going to be the most astounding thing you’ve ever heard of, sir, and I say that knowing that a man of your caliber in your profession must have known some astounding things in his time.

• amazing, extraordinary, fantastic, incredible, marvelous, miraculous, phenomenal, remarkable, unbelievable
• See Thesaurus:surprising

• French: impressionnant
• Italian: impressionante
• Spanish: asombroso, pasmoso, sorprendente, epatante