[A poleax is a battle-ax with a short handle and often a hook or spike opposite the blade. The word is also a verb meaning to attack, strike, or fell with or as if with a poleax. However, it is also often used figuratively (generally in the past tense) to mean stunned or amazed, not necessarily in a negative way.] “It was a phenomenal performance in London — people who had not seen it originally with her were really pretty poleaxed,” Mr. Lloyd Webber said of Ms. Close. “I always thought she was the best Norma Desmond we ever had.” (Michael Paulson, “Glenn Close Will Star, Again, in ‘Sunset Boulevard’ on Broadway,” The New York Times, 10/25/2016.)
This word can also be a synonym for astonished, amazed, dumbfounded, stupefied, surprised, astounded and flabbergasted.
Leave a Reply