stuns

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of stun.

   The sudden noise stuns the whole room into silence.

   A single jolt from the device stuns the attacker long enough to escape.

   Note

   The he-she-it present, usually followed by a direct object: news stuns a crowd, a blow stuns a fighter. It can also stand without an object, meaning to go into a stunned state. Singapore army slang gives it an unexpected object. Someone who stuns a rifle or magazine confiscates it from a careless soldier as punishment, so the thing taken is stunned, not the person.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of stun.

   The device is set to deliver brief stuns rather than lasting harm.

   Two quick stuns from the prod sent the cattle stumbling sideways.

   Note

   A plural that only some meanings of the noun allow. Blows, shocks and the billiard player's stun shot all count, so they can pile up as stuns. The weapon setting does not: a device is set to stun, never to stuns. In Newfoundland a stun is also a dull-witted person, and the plural covers them too. The same spelling serves as the verb's he-she-it form, so the sentence's grammar tells you which one you are reading.

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