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

Loth to go to Hell and put to a nonplus, David built a nest in a tree in Richmond Park, and he paused therein to consider which way to proceed.

From My Neighbors Stories of the Welsh People by Caradoc Evans

Peter was puzzled, and scratched his ear like a man at a nonplus.

From The Daltons, Volume II (of II) Or,Three Roads In Life by Charles James Lever

It happened most fortunately that there were a number of Chippewayan Indians encamped on the spot at the time, else we should have been completely at a nonplus.

From Notes of a Twenty-Five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory Volume II. by John M'lean

So The Revolution, from the start, will arouse, thrill, edify, amuse, vex and nonplus its friends.

From The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years by Ida Husted Harper

Leigh Rosser was similarly nonplused while describing his biggest challenge as design fabrication lead.

From New York Times ● Apr. 1, 2024

A genial man in person, Mr. Connick appeared nonplused in his later years over a reputation that had been severely tainted.

From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2024

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

The unflappable Lincoln might have been a little nonplussed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 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

But Rotem Naftalovich, of Rutgers University in New Jersey, one of the three researchers involved, said the US food regulator was nonplussed by the admittedly "wonky" idea.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2025

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

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2024

He bolted out of the restaurant, leaving his nonplussed dinner guests behind, to view the evidence for himself.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

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

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

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

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

Dismissing this nonplussing phase, I turned to the subject of the gem once more.

From The Paternoster Ruby by Charles Edmonds Walk