Dazzle
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈdæzəl/
- Rhymes: -æzəl
Origin
Frequentative of daze.
Full definition of dazzle
Verb
- (transitive) To confuse the sight of by means of excessive brightness.Dazzled by the headlights of the lorry, the deer stopped in the middle of the street.
- MiltonThose heavenly shapes
Will dazzle now the earthly, with their blaze
Insufferably bright. - Sir H. TaylorAn unreflected light did never yet
Dazzle the vision feminine. - (transitive, figuratively) To render incapable of thinking clearly; to overwhelm with showiness or brilliance.The delegates were dazzled by the originality of his arguments.
- (intransitive) To be overpowered by light; to be confused by excess of brightness.
- Francis BaconAn overlight maketh the eyes dazzle.
- DrydenI dare not trust these eyes;
They dance in mists, and dazzle with surprise.
Derived terms
Noun
dazzle
(plural dazzles)- A light of dazzling brilliancy.
- (uncommon) A herd of zebra.
- 1958, Laurens Van der Post, The lost world of the Kalahari: with the great and the little memory (1998 David Coulson edition):We were trying to stalk a dazzle of zebra which flashed in and out of a long strip of green and yellow fever trees, with an ostrich, its feathers flared like a ballet skirt around its dancing legs, on their flank, when suddenly ...
- 2009, Darren Paul Shearer, In You God Trusts, page 176:Zebras move in herds which are known as "dazzles." When a lion approaches a dazzle of zebras during its hunt, ...
- 2010, Douglas Rogers, The Last Resort: A Memoir of Mischief and Mayhem on a Family Farm in Africa, page 22:I reached the lodge as a dazzle of zebras trotted across the dirt road into thorny scrub by the game fence, and a lone kudu gazed up at me from the short grass near the swimming pool.