Meaning & use
leave gobsmacked
Last updated
Meaning
verbtransitiveinformalBritish
To shock or surprise someone so much that they are unable to speak or react.
Grammar: Takes a person as object: the news left me gobsmacked. The object comes before the adjective.
Patterns
- leave someone gobsmacked
- be left gobsmacked by something
The final twist in the film left the whole audience gobsmacked.
I was left gobsmacked when she told me she was moving to Japan.
His sudden resignation left his colleagues gobsmacked.
Word forms
| third person singular | leaves gobsmacked |
|---|---|
| past tense | left gobsmacked |
| past participle | left gobsmacked |
| -ing form | leaving gobsmacked |
Common combinations
- leave someone gobsmacked
- The size of the bill left him gobsmacked.
- be left gobsmacked
- We were left gobsmacked by the announcement.
- absolutely gobsmacked
- She was absolutely gobsmacked at the news.
- leave the audience gobsmacked
- The magician's last trick left the audience gobsmacked.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- gobsmacked adjective
- Extremely surprised; the adjective used after 'leave' or 'be'.
- gobsmacking adjective
- Informal: so surprising that it stuns people.
Commonly confused: leave gobsmacked or dumbfounded? leave gobsmacked or speechless?
leave gobsmacked vs dumbfounded
Means so surprised that you cannot speak, but it is more formal and not limited to British English.
leave gobsmacked vs speechless
Can mean unable to speak from surprise or from strong emotion such as anger.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'leave gobsmacked' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The verb 'leave' takes the person as its object, and the adjective 'gobsmacked' follows that object: leave me gobsmacked. The other options put the words in an order that English does not allow.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “leave gobsmacked”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.