What it means
Means you're so shocked you go silent with your mouth hanging open. Gob is your mouth and to be smacked is to be walloped, so the surprise has basically slapped the words out of you. Use it for big news, mad prices, or a plot twist that leaves you staring into space.
Usage examples
"I opened the payslip and nearly dropped my brew, they'd actually given me a bonus. I just stood there, proper gobsmacked, like a stunned muppet."
"I was gobsmacked when they read out the winner, I genuinely thought there had been a mistake with the envelope."
"When she said she'd paid off the whole mortgage at thirty, I was absolutely gobsmacked and just sat there clutching my tea."
"The bill came and Dad went fully gobsmacked. Kept staring at it like the numbers might apologise."
"When the estate agent said that tiny flat was going for eight hundred grand, I was proper gobsmacked. Nearly laughed myself inside out."
Where it comes from
Built from British and Irish slang gob for mouth plus smacked. It shows up in British English around the mid 20th century and paints the whole shock-hit-your-face picture perfectly. Very UK and Ireland at heart, then it travelled out to places shaped by British English too.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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