Amaze vs Amuse - What's the difference?
amaze | amuse |
(obsolete) To stupefy; to knock unconscious.
(obsolete) To bewilder; to stupefy; to bring into a maze.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) To terrify, to fill with panic.
*, New York Review Books 2001, p.261:
To fill with wonder and surprise; to astonish, astound, surprise or perplex.
* Bible, Matthew xii. 23
* Goldsmith
To undergo amazement; to be astounded.
* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , I.ii:
* 1891 , (Mary Noailles Murfree), In the "Stranger People's" Country , Nebraska 2005, p. 103:
* 1985 , (Lawrence Durrell), Quinx'', Faber & Faber 2004 (''Avignon Quintet ), p. 1361:
To entertain or occupy in a pleasant manner; to stir with pleasing emotions.
* Gilpin
To cause laughter, to be funny.
(archaic) To keep in expectation; to beguile; to delude.
* Johnson
(archaic) To occupy or engage the attention of; to lose in deep thought; to absorb; also, to distract; to bewilder.
* Holland
* Fuller
As verbs the difference between amaze and amuse
is that amaze is to stupefy; to knock unconscious while amuse is to entertain or occupy in a pleasant manner; to stir with pleasing emotions.As a noun amaze
is amazement, astonishment.amaze
English
Verb
(amaz)- a labyrinth to amaze his foes
- [Fear] amazeth many men that are to speak or show themselves in public assemblies, or before some great personages […].
- He was amazed when he found that the girl was a robot.
- 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.
Noun
(-)- All in amaze he suddenly vp start / With sword in hand, and with the old man went [...].
- Shattuck looked at him in amaze .
- She took the proffered cheque and stared at it with puzzled amaze , dazed by her own behaviour.
amuse
English
Verb
- I watch these movies because they amuse me.
- It always amuses me to hear the funny stories why people haven't got a ticket, but I never let them get in without paying.
- A group of children amusing themselves with pushing stones from the top [of the cliff], and watching as they plunged into the lake.
- He amused his followers with idle promises.
- Camillus set upon the Gauls when they were amused in receiving their gold.
- Being amused with grief, fear, and fright, he could not find the house.