What's the difference between flabbergast and stupefy?

Flabbergast


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To astonish; to strike with wonder, esp. by extraordinary statements.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I was flabbergasted, as were the rest of the 30 oceanographers.
  • (2) I would be flabbergasted that if anyone bothered to test the loos of some of our most uptight rightwing papers they didn't find some traces of Class A drugs.
  • (3) "I'd be flabbergasted if the Puntland fields were worth the time of the big players such as BP or Shell.
  • (4) Abbott confirmed that claim and said he was disappointed and flabbergasted by the delay.
  • (5) We were all flabbergasted that the little boy from Quebec city managed to overturn everything."
  • (6) Given its indifference toward women and racism, its eagerness to plunder public coffers and its outright economic and medical hostility toward its own labor force, it is flabbergasting that any of us remain fans of the NFL at all.
  • (7) Abbott’s comments to the Australian newspaper – that he was “flabbergasted” at an apparent decision to delay the acquisition of 12 new submarines – had been contradicted by senior defence officials , Turnbull said.
  • (8) Put simply it’s, “What the actual fuck?” “I don’t even think you are human!” cries one listener, flabbergasted by Broke Up and its squiggling rave synths, which sound as if they’re gasping for life.
  • (9) And he had huge hands, too.” Ron, all these years later, was still moved by, flabbergasted by, the attention Reagan paid to him as a boy.
  • (10) Given that the bugbot video is at least three years old, I'd be flabbergasted if there isn't a production line silently screwing the wings on to a miniature death squadron in some Nevadan hangar right now.
  • (11) Add in the fact that Bert had been hoping to cash in on stock and that Roger has seen his lead at Chevy subverted behind his back and you can understand why SCDP's jungle king has chosen to break the news to a flabbergasted Peggy Olson from the safety of his former rivals' office.
  • (12) But a former Howard-era minister, Peter Reith, disagreed, saying Abbott’s comments to Sheridan that he was “flabbergasted” by an apparent delay in acquiring new submarines would hurt the government.
  • (13) To say that the news has unsettled the party of which he is now the nominal head would be a gross understatement – thunderstruck, flabbergasted or devastated would be closer to the mark.
  • (14) In a story revealing the leak, in the Australian newspaper, Abbott was quoted as saying he had been “not just disappointed” but “flabbergasted” by the delay.
  • (15) "I heard Tim Farron speak earlier and Nick Clegg said this to me as well, they are flabbergasted that essentially we are in a situation where a man … where the allegations and the evidence have now been thoroughly tested and have actually been found to be credible, so nobody is suggesting that they think we are lying."
  • (16) Councillor Trevor Blythe, who represents Clifton ward for the Lib Dems on Bristol city council, said: "We were absolutely flabbergasted when we heard he'd been arrested."
  • (17) "I am so flabbergasted right now; that may be the single weirdest factoid of the entire World Cup."
  • (18) Yet one of the flabbergasting aspects of the Guardian's story about 'Billionaires Row' was the calm acceptance of such spectacular property hoarding.
  • (19) Former prime minister Tony Abbott , who has strenuously denied being the source of the leak to his friend, journalist Greg Sheridan, was quoted in the story in the Australia saying he was “not just disappointed” but also “flabbergasted” by the delay.
  • (20) People … will be flabbergasted that nothing has been done about this," Ummuna said.

Stupefy


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make stupid; to make dull; to blunt the faculty of perception or understanding in; to deprive of sensibility; to make torpid.
  • (v. t.) To deprive of material mobility.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Between 2002 and 2008, Worboys, who was jailed for life in 2009, carried out more than 100 rapes and sexual assaults using alcohol and drugs to stupefy his victims, said Mr Justice Green at London's high court.
  • (2) The US Congress, its approval rating still near all-time lows , is reinforcing its own record of stupefyingly short-sighted lawmaking with what may be the most harmful piece of economic legislation in America in years: the $1tn 2013 farm bill .
  • (3) Like its predecessors (The Tudors, Spartacus, Camelot etc) the 10-part potboiler is awash with wrecking ball exposition, window-rattling anachronisms and scenes in which heritage hardbodies have shouting backwards sex next to stupefied livestock.
  • (4) It was a ridiculous goal, one that had a stupefying effect on this stadium.
  • (5) Yes, we pound along after prickly DS Gibson as she quietly humiliates stupefied subordinates and draws important red circles around photos with her big Met-issued marker pen.
  • (6) It's debased and stupefied, really, but that's daily politics."
  • (7) He was used and made to look ridiculous in front of those he governs.” Why Trump was invited and then treated so softly left pundits stupefied, especially since Peña Nieto, who is not known for verbal jousting or talking without scripts, missed such a good chance to improve his poor approval rating.
  • (8) Late summer saw a surprising population explosion of wasps, with many wandering around apparently stupefied by gorging on too much honeydew (the sugary excretion of aphids).
  • (9) But I think we should regard it as a moment for opportunity.” Johnson had previously called Trump “ill-informed” and said his comments on Islam showed “a quite stupefying ignorance that makes him frankly unfit to hold the office of president of the United States”.
  • (10) Richard Pasquier, head of the Jewish umbrella group the Crif, not usually critical of the government, said he was "shocked" and "stupefied" by Fillon's comments.
  • (11) Because everywhere where they love their football, the memory lingers of that stupefying free-kick in Le Tournoi in France in 1997 when he bent the ball, defying every law of football physics as hitherto understood, around the outside of a defensive wall with the outside of his left foot, from 35 yards, past a mute, helpless and utterly immobile Fabien Barthez.
  • (12) Wodehouse wrote that a Briton could easily stupefy himself with food at Simpson’s, and quite cheaply, too.
  • (13) Our pharmaceutical industries produce a cornucopia of prescription drugs – eye-opening, stupefying, mood-swinging, game-changing, anxiety-alleviating, performance-enhancing – currently at a global market-value of more than $300bn.
  • (14) What followed was extraordinary even before we reached those final, stupefying moments.
  • (15) Drawn by Russia’s finest political cartoonist, Sergey Elkin , it is at once a powerful portrayal of the stupefying influence of Kremlin-controlled TV and an indication of why neither increasingly harsh western sanctions nor international allegations of Russian culpability in the destruction of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 are likely to damage Vladimir Putin’s soaring popularity at home.
  • (16) Reductive drugs: lowering the intensity of sensations and emotions, in three kinds: a) Releaser drugs, causing removal of inhibitions and production of phantasies; b) Sedation drugs, easing tensions and anxieties; c) Stupefying drugs, blurring all contact with the outer world.
  • (17) There you were, going through life like a stupefied Commie drone, until you got lit up by some smilin’ Wasilla sunshine, and now you can’t get enough.
  • (18) The idea is the mental construct of a powerful lobby, the British navy, its cheerleaders and its suppliers, with their hands on stupefying amounts of public money and an ability to scare politicians into pandering to their interest.
  • (19) Unaccompanied child refugees' suffering on route to Europe laid bare Read more Most of the unaccompanied minors in Catania rarely seem to leave the patch of grass near the station, sitting quietly throughout the stupefying afternoon heat, occasionally washing in the fountain dedicated to the ancient Roman goddess Proserpina.
  • (20) Some news from the sticks: across England and Wales, 41 elections for police commissioners will take place in just over a week, but the buildup to this supposedly watershed moment is stupefyingly quiet.