amaze

Etymology

The verb is derived from Middle English *amasen, amase (“to bewilder, perplex”) (attested chiefly in the past participle form, and thus often difficult to distinguish from amased (adjective)), from Old English āmasian (“to confuse, astonish”), from ā- (perfective prefix) + *masian (“to confound, confuse, perplex; to amaze”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh₂- (“to beckon, signal”)). The English word is analysable as a- (intensifying prefix) + maze (“(archaic) to astonish, amaze, bewilder; to daze, stupefy”). The noun is derived from Late Middle English amase, from the verb: see above.

verb

1. (transitive)
   1. To fill (someone) with surprise">surprise and wonder; to astonish, to astound, to surprise">surprise.
      He was amazed when he found that the girl was a robot.
   2. (obsolete) To stun or stupefy (someone).
   3. (obsolete, also reflexive) To bewilder or perplex (someone or oneself).
   4. (obsolete, poetic) To fill (someone) with panic">panic; to panic">panic, to terrify.
2. (intransitive, archaic) To experience amazement; to be astounded.
   Pealing rays and trumpet-blazes,— / Eye is blinded, ear amazes: […] 1871, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Bayard Taylor, Faust: A Tragedy. […] The Second Part.[…], 11th edition, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company[…], →OCLC, act I, scene i, page 5

noun

1. (archaic)
   1. (except poetic, uncountable) Amazement, astonishment; (countable) an instance of this.
      Shattuck looked at him in amaze. "Why, of course and welcome. What do you mean?" His tone was surprised and wounded, but pacific. 1891, Charles Egbert Craddock [pseudonym; Mary Noailles Murfree], chapter VIII, in In the “Stranger People’s” Country[…], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers,[…], →OCLC, page 175
      While the world did gaze, in deep amaze, at those fearless men but few. Who bore the fight that freedom's light might shine through the foggy dew. c. 1919, “The Foggy Dew” (track 3), in The Long Black Veil, performed by The Chieftains and Sinéad O'Connor, published 1995
      She took the proffered cheque and stared at it with puzzled amaze, dazed by her own behaviour. 1985, Lawrence Durrell, “Quinx”, in The Avignon Quintet: Monsieur, Livia, Constance, Sebastian, Quinx, London: Faber and Faber, published 2004, page 1361
   2. (uncountable) Fear, terror.
2. (obsolete, uncountable) Stupefaction of the mind; bewilderment; (countable) an instance of this.