stupefy

• stupify

From Middle French stupéfier, from Latin stupefaciō (“strike dumb, stun with amazement, stupefy”), from stupeō (“I am stunned, speechless”) (English stupid, stupor) + faciō (“do, make”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈst(j)upəˌfaɪ/, /ˈst͡ʃupəˌfaɪ/

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stupefy (third-person singular simple present stupefies, present participle stupefying, simple past and past participle stupefied)

1. (transitive, especially law) To dull the senses or capacity to think thereby reducing responsiveness; to stun.

   a stupefying drug; a stupefacient

   He stupefied her by means of chloroform, a general anaesthetic.

2. (transitive, by extension, figurative) To astonish or stun, especially as a result of some distressing action.

   The police's negligence and callousness continued to stupefy her.

   • 1917, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “A Bad Beginning”, in Look! We Have Come Through!, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 77:

     What if I love you!—This misery / Of your dissatisfaction and misprision / Stupefies me.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To deprive a material of the ability to undergo change or movement, especially deformation.
   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “IX. Century. [Articles of Enquiry.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, page 226:

     The next is, when it is not malleable, but yet it is not fluent, but stupified^[sic].