| Library / English Dictionary |
SPEECHLESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Temporarily incapable of speaking
Example:
speechless with shock
Synonyms:
dumb; speechless
Classified under:
Similar:
inarticulate; unarticulate (without or deprived of the use of speech or words)
Derivation:
speechlessness (the property of being speechless)
Context examples:
Roderigo and Don Pedro flew to the rescue, and all were taken out unhurt, though many were speechless with laughter.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
These, however, were small drawbacks, and easily forgotten when the cloth was cleared, and the dessert put on the table; at which period of the entertainment the handy young man was discovered to be speechless.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Fanny, meanwhile, vexed with herself for not having been as motionless as she was speechless, and grieved to the heart to see Edmund's arrangements, was trying by everything in the power of her modest, gentle nature, to repulse Mr. Crawford, and avoid both his looks and inquiries; and he, unrepulsable, was persisting in both.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
