stunning

1. 1
   adjectivecolloquial

   Extremely beautiful or attractive, in a way that makes a strong impression.

   The bride looked stunning as she walked down the aisle.

   Visitors gasped at the stunning gardens behind the old palace.

   Similargorgeous, beautiful, breathtaking, ravishing, striking

   Oppositeugly, plain, unattractive, hideous

2. 2
   adjectivecolloquial

   Remarkably good or impressive, enough to amaze those who encounter it.

   The startup posted stunning growth in its first year of trading.

   The orchestra delivered a stunning performance of the symphony.

   Similarimpressive, remarkable, astonishing, spectacular, phenomenal

   Oppositeunremarkable, mediocre, disappointing, lackluster

   Note

   Here the shock is admiration for quality rather than looks. Phil McNulty's 2012 BBC report of Drogba "flashing a stunning finish" praises a goal as excellent, not pretty. That is the way to tell it from the "beautiful" meaning: ask whether the praise is for appearance or for achievement. Results, performances, growth and goals take this sense, and it remains informal praise.

3. 3
   adjective

   Producing an effect that knocks out, dazes, or shocks a person or animal into helplessness.

   The crash sent a stunning impact through the driver's whole body.

   A stunning current passes through the device before the animal is handled.

   Similarjarring, numbing, stupefying, concussive, shattering

   Note

   The literal sense, and the one the admiring senses grew out of: Middle English stunnyng, simply stun plus -ing. Its oldest company is noise and blows, as in Milton's "stunning sounds" in Paradise Lost (1667) and the "stunning stroke" of Pope's Iliad (1720). It still pairs naturally with jolt, blow and noise. When it describes a view or a performance instead, the shock has become figurative.

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of stun.

   The plant uses electric shocks for stunning poultry before processing.

   The new device is capable of stunning an attacker from fifteen feet away.

   Note

   The verb form behind every use of stun, including the cue player's, where stunning the cue ball makes it slide without topspin or backspin. As a verb it usually takes an object (stunning poultry, stunning the crowd), though stun can also be intransitive. The same spelling is also the adjective, and the test is grading: a more stunning blow is adjectival, while nothing can be "more stunning the targets."

5. 5
   noununcountable

   An act of rendering a person or animal senseless, usually by a blow or an electric shock.

   Electrical stunning is standard practice in most modern slaughterhouses.

   The stunning of the fish was over in an instant.

   Note

   A countable noun as well as a name for the practice: besides electrical stunning as a process, it takes a plural, stunnings. Kevin J. Anderson's The Ashes of Worlds (2009) lists "the stunnings, beatings and arrests" of a crackdown, where each one is a separate incident. Use the plural only when individual acts are being counted or listed.

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