nonplus

He found cross-examinations mentally invigorating, soon learned that he could nonplus storming attorneys if he kept smiling no matter how galling their insinuations.

From Time Magazine Archive

My uncle turned from one to the other, completely at a nonplus, Rosalie in the meantime clinging to his breast and imploring him passionately to save her!

From Kate Coventry An Autobiography by G. J. Whyte-Melville

The scholars were cogent reasoners, and a show of staves soon brought their opponents to a nonplus.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 1 by Lucia Isabella Gilbert Runkle

Jupp was at a nonplus again; however, he tried to temporise with the mite, the more especially from his noticing that his little legs were quite mottled and his tiny fingers blue with cold.

From Teddy The Story of a Little Pickle by John C. (John Conroy) Hutcheson

Sir Julian, thou dost nonplus my understanding of myself absurdly.

From Mistress Penwick by Dutton Payne

When was the last time you looked at the exquisite list of synonyms for the word “baffled”? They may be among the best in the English language: puzzled, nonplused, discombobulated, flummoxed, stumped, fogged, wildered, buffaloed.

From New York Times ● Feb. 29, 2024

He isn’t nodding his head or pumping his fist or rapping the lyrics like no few of the V.I.P.s present; in fact he seems almost nonplused.

From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2022

The shepherds were nonplused by the project but became serious about matters of geography.

From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2022

And this, in turn, has left some of his peers nonplused — grumbling at what they see as a flimsy theory or bewildered as to why Harvard’s top astronomer won’t shut up about aliens.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 4, 2019

“I sure could use some lumber for my front porch,” he said, nonplused.

From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam

It featured Evan, Anthony and Zachary performing a rendition of Hilary Duff’s “What Dreams Are Made Of” before a crowd of nonplussed seniors, while Darshan danced along next to them on a laptop screen.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 28, 2026

Durant appeared nonplussed by the spat, while admitting that he had deliberately taken a combative approach into the game.

From Barron's ● Dec. 21, 2025

"This is how I'd do it if I was DJ," he tells a group of nonplussed staff as dance music strains at his laptop speakers.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2025

I was further nonplussed by a bizarre incident at a large end-of-summer meet.

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2024

I believe nonplussed is the word for her expression.

From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon

Weaver, however, verged on nonplussing co-hosts Brian Williams and Rachel Maddow, as well as reporter Steve Kornacki, MSNBC's millennial version of CNN's king-of-the-"Magic Wall" John King.

From US News ● Apr. 20, 2016

The question was awkward, nonplussing Jerky, and, the second time, calling for explanation from his sister; who, however, promptly vouchsafed it.

From No Quarter! by Mayne Reid

While his powers of discussion of a subject were great, the power that especially characterized him was that of nonplussing his antagonist with a snub or a sarcasm.

From The Brothers' War by John Calvin Reed

Our higher officials are fond as a rule of nonplussing their subordinates; the methods to which they have recourse to attain that end are rather various.

From Fathers and Children by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

It is closely woven in with that of Poindexter, and presents one feature which may occasion you no surprise, but which, I own, came near nonplussing me.

From The Circular Study by Anna Katharine Green