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Dazzle vs Stun - What's the difference?

dazzle | stun | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between dazzle and stun

is that dazzle is to confuse the sight of by means of excessive brightness while stun is to shock or surprise.

dazzle

English

Verb

(dazzl)
  • To confuse the sight of by means of excessive brightness.
    • Dazzled by the headlights of the lorry, the deer stopped in the middle of the street.
  • * Milton
    • Those heavenly shapes / Will dazzle now the earthly, with their blaze / Insufferably bright.
  • * Sir H. Taylor
    • An unreflected light did never yet / Dazzle the vision feminine.
  • (figuratively) To render incapable of thinking clearly; to overwhelm with showiness or brilliance.
    • The delegates were dazzled by the originality of his arguments.
  • To be overpowered by light; to be confused by excess of brightness.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • An overlight maketh the eyes dazzle .
  • * Dryden
    • I dare not trust these eyes; / They dance in mists, and dazzle with surprise.

    Derived terms

    * dazzler * dazzlement

    Noun

    (s)
  • A light of dazzling brilliancy.
  • (uncommon) A herd of zebra.
  • * 1958', Laurens Van der Post, ''The lost world of the Kalahari: with the great and the little memory'' (' 1998 David Coulson edition):
    • We were trying to stalk a dazzle of zebra which flashed in and out of a long strip of green and yellow fever trees, with an ostrich, its feathers flared like a ballet skirt around its dancing legs, on their flank, when suddenly
  • * 2009 , Darren Paul Shearer, In You God Trusts , page 176:
    • Zebras move in herds which are known as "dazzles." When a lion approaches a dazzle of zebras during its hunt,
  • * 2010 , Douglas Rogers, The Last Resort: A Memoir of Mischief and Mayhem on a Family Farm in Africa , page 22:
    • I reached the lodge as a dazzle of zebras trotted across the dirt road into thorny scrub by the game fence, and a lone kudu gazed up at me from the short grass near the swimming pool.

    Synonyms

    * herd

    stun

    English

    Verb

    (stunn)
  • To incapacitate; especially by inducing disorientation or unconsciousness.
    • Bill tried to stun the snake by striking it on the head.
    In many European countries cattle have to be stunned before slaughtering.
  • To shock or surprise.
    • The celebrity was stunned to find herself confronted with unfounded allegiations on the front page of a newspaper.
    He stood there stunned , looking at the beautiful, breath-taking sunrise.
  • (snooker, billiards) To hit the cue ball so that it slides without topspin or backspin (and with or without sidespin) and continues at a natural angle after contact with the object ball

    • Noun

    (-)
  • The condition of being stunned.
  • (billiard, snooker, pool) The effect on the cue ball where the ball is hit without topspin, backspin or sidespin.

    • Anagrams

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