Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a stunning blow.

1825		Universal Songster 271/1: He knocked Pat down, no time to lose, / Then gave me such a stunner; / A broken head and bloody nose / I got for Judy Connor.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 3 Sept. n.p.: He [...] gave him a ‘stunner’ under his ‘masticatory beams’.
1843		Comic Almanack July 371: When Ningpo fell, it was, in fact, / To the Chinese an awful stunner.
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 1 Jan. n.p.: Horace received a severe sockdollager on his muffin-trap, and [...] dealt his adversary a stunner on his snuff-mill, which drew the claret.
1857		Lancaster Gaz. 24 Oct. 5/6: When he is floored in an argument he is ‘regularly flummuxed,’ and his floorer is a ‘stunner’.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 115/2: At this moment, Artful, who had recovered from the ‘sender’ Joe had dealt him, was in the act of dealing my ‘pal’ a ‘stunner’ with an empty wine bottle.
1869		N.Y. Herald 5 Sept. n.p.: Roche put in some stunners [...] Foley placed in a rough rib-bender.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 386: ‘I’se been lookin’ fur some o’ dat bote’s niggers some time,’ said Frank, at the same time giving him a stunner under the eye that sent him sprawling on the floor.
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘When Love Began’ The Sporting Times 8 Feb. 1/3: Love began when Cupid, wily whippersnapper, / Caused the maid to hit her Haskall to such purpose as to land / A spruce bridegroom with a stunner on his napper.
1955		B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] [H]e clipped Milty the Poet on the side of the jaw, a stunner rather than a k.o.
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 454: ‘Joey, The Bridge is going to be canceled.’ It was a stunner.

2. a violent thug.

1868

‘The Bogtrotter’s Lament’ at warrenfahey.com 🌐 At fights I’m a stunner, / Can smash a skull bone.

3. used as a term of address.

1845

J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 87: ‘Lookee here, my stunner,’ sais I.

4. an expert in their own job or profession; also as adj.

1844		C. Selby London by Night I v: chairman: Mr Nobley Cole will give a song. omnes: Bravo – bravo! He’s a stunner, he is!
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 207: A tobyman of the first water—a stunner every inch of him.
1850		Fast Man 3:1 n.p.: MY DEAR OLD GIRL, I always thought you a ‘Stunner’ for a ten minutes row, but now I am convinced of your successful go in on [...] the long shicksters from the Masque, that you could rough it for an hour.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 305: You alwis was a stunner at guessin’.
1880		Western Times 25 Aug. 3/2: Let me introduce to your notice a performing monkey —a regular stunner and no mistake.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Feb. 4/3: At puddings and pies she’s a ‘stunner,’ / At roasting and boiling no chick; In fact, she’s really ‘A1’-er – / A regular housekeeping brick.
1892		‘’Arry in ’Arrygate’ in Punch 24 Sept. 133/2: black, — local doctor, a stunner!
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 7 Jan. 4/8: Up at Gingin I was counted quite a don at shearing time, / For my tally was a stunner and my handiwork was prime.
1978		‘A.P. Gaskell’ All Part of the Game 151: He was a stunner sword-fighter.

5. a first-rate example.

1842		J. Labern ‘The Stunning Meat Pie’ Comic Songs 6: It was a Stunner out and out.
1857		H.S. Brown Manliness 17: If he sees anything remarkably good he calls it a ‘stunner’, the superlative of which is a ‘regular stunner’.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 165/1: If they’re plump and fine, then they’ll say, ‘Fat ’uns to-night – stunners!’.
1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act II: I’ve given up Broseley’s and started a briar root [...] It’s a stunner.
1871		Gympie Times (Qld) 11 jan. 3/6: If he sees anything remarkably good he calls it a ‘stunner,’ the superlative of which is a ‘regular stunner’.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 196: If he wanted to fit up a stunner of a [gaming] house and let his man Kirby go into it as operator, he was willing to throw up $100,000 that way.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 238: [of a horse] I can let you have a stunner.
1890		Sporting Times 3 May 3/1: Your second dress was a real stunner.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 25 Nov. 7/5: Maudie showed the bracelet [...] and Charlie pronounced it ‘a stunner’.
1895		S.F. Call 15 June 3/7: That’s [i.e. a chair] a Stunner! Forgive this slang.
1907		Otago Witness (N.Z.) 12 Dec. 90/1: Mrs Barnet touched the inlaid polished case with covetous admiration and broke in — ‘Hey, isn’t it a bonny ’un? It’s a stunner!’.
1913		E.L. Warnock ‘Terms of Approbation And Eulogy’ in DN IV:i 17: stunner. Anything grand or astounding. [...] ‘Wasn’t that scene a stunner?’.
1923		Stage (London) 11 Oct. 29/1: [advert] The Outstanding Attraction stunners The Entertainment De Luxe.
1943		J.A.W. Bennett ‘Eng. as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 89: There is a liking for words in -er, and a whole group of them express admiration: corker, stunner (both used as adjectives as well as nouns).
2000		F. Mac Anna Cartoon City 214: The ballgown is a stunner.

6. (UK Und.) one who is liable, responsible for.

1846

Swell’s Night Guide 77: He crapped the pad, scarpered from the crib, and put Bet in the hole for the heap; bilked her a stretcher, and left her a dead stunner to muck the pad, and tip for the lumber.

7. a first-rate individual.

1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 283: ‘Toby, my stunner!’ ‘Jack, my tulip!’.
1849		Thackeray Pendennis I 37: Thus she stood for a minute—complete and beautiful [...] ‘I say, Pen, isn’t she a stunner?’ asked Mr. Foker.
1854		E.R. Sullivan Bungalow or Tent 35: His use of the vernacular was interlarded with slang [...] he told me my house-keeper was a ‘stunner’.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor II 178/2: That there Sal of mine’s a stunner—a riglar stunner.
1878		J. Hatton Cruel London III 155: Hain’t ’e a stunner, ’Ennery James.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 9/2: But Nita’s first [baby] was a stunner, and stood being sent from house to house, and police stations, with not even a feeding-bottle in the cradle, like a brick.
1891		T.B. Reed Cock House Fellsgarth 41: Jolly well done of you, kid — you’re a stunner.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 22 July 3/2: But the gal (that’s the reason we’ve plucked her, / As a heroine fit for a ‘pome’) / Was a stunner.
1906		Marvel 17 Nov. 467: And that tall chap, who was such a stunner with his fists.
1913		E.L. Warnock ‘Terms of Approbation And Eulogy’ in DN IV:i 17: stunner. A stylish-looking person.
1953		C. Sandburg Always the Young Strangers 111: Then came a couple of stunners.
1975		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 151: The Barry makes his first *Grand Appearance *, and damn my fillings if he ain’t a stunner.
1984		Stage (London) 31 May 15/6: It was a short and very nice performance that silenced the place. She was a stunner.

8. a surprise, something that ‘stuns’.

1833		Comic Offering 144: The seals of my uncle Gregory's will were broken [...] The first article was a stunner.
1853		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 8 Oct. n.p.: Next week, a ‘stunner’.
1869		W.M. Howell Diggings and the Bush 32: Two snakes! well if that aint a stunner?
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 357: I looked foolish. It was rather a stunner when you come to think of it.
1913		E.L. Warnock ‘Terms of Approbation And Eulogy’ in DN IV:i 17: stunner [...] Anything grand or astounding.
1997		D. Farson Never a Normal Man 135: It came as a stunner that same morning when I learnt that he was citing me in his divorce.

9. (also stunna) a notably attractive young woman, revived in the late 1980s+ to describe a woman posing as a pin-up for the tabloid press or for softcore pornographic magazines; occas. of men (see cite 1885, 2020).

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 50: ‘Nanty, nanty, cullies,’ said Slippery Sal, the Oakley-street stunner.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 176: Fanny’s my sister, Gig-lamps — a regular stunner.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: A capital fellow is ‘Grambags,’ and his wife is a stunner.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 52/1: If thau does the thing ‘ryebuck,’ thau sall ’ave my ‘moll’ wat I left i’ Leeds, and she’s a ‘stunner,’ I tell thee.
1871		Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 7 Jan. 1/7: Does a gentleman wish to express his admiration for a young lady: she is a ‘stunner,’ an ‘out and outer,’ a ‘screamer’.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 179: ‘By George! [...] if she only looks half as well off her horse as she does on it, she must be a stunner’.
1878		Chicago Life 23 Mar. n.p.: There are two new arrivals at the house of Miss Jennie Williams. They are said to be stunners.
1881		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 25 Mar, 7/4: Hallo! Here’s a ‘doner’ a coming [...] She’s a stunner, ain’t she.
1885		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 26 Dec. 7/3: [She] wondered what it was that made him such a stunner with women.
1887		A.C. Gunter Mr Barnes of N.Y. 12: Barnes [...] called her ‘a stunner’.
1894		H. Lawson ‘She Wouldn’t Speak’ in Roderick (1972) 115: Ain’t she a stunner, Joe?
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 341: ’Pon my word, she’s grown a stunner.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 July 15/1: I can shake a loose leg, so I hooked on to a fine gal – a reg’lar stunner. She went for me and I began serously [sic] to think of makin’ her Mrs. Muggins.
1901		D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 249: I say, who’s that stunner over there with the diamond earrings and the matinée hat?
1911		S. Ford Torchy 75: I expect he sees so many stunners like her every night.
1922		A. Christie Secret Adversary (1955) 62: She’s a stunner to look at, ain’t she?
c.1930		(ref. to 1898) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 270: I myself knew Selina, a Chinese tart, the best looker I ever saw among them – what was called ‘a stunner’.
1939		W. Winchell On Broadway 19 Apr. [synd. col.] Lady Strickland, of the British Royal Femlee (and a stunner) starts yodeling at Coq Rouge soon.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 6: Words of general approval [...] stunner (1848) — e.g. ‘She’s a stiunner’.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 105: He is inclined to refer to beautiful babes as ‘stunners’.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 192: She was only a pony—about five foot two and smaller than most women I’d been keen on—but she looked a stunner.
1976		H. Leonard Time Was (1981) Act I: bea: And was she beautiful? p.j.: A stunner.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 127: I say, old boy, you shouldn’t upset a stunner like that.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 25: Thanks to liberal injections of silicone [...] and the odd face-lift once in a while, she was still a bit of a stunner.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 127: Ah Toy was a stunner of the stripe that Chinese poets liken to celestial phenomena.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 11: This girl was a stunner, with a pair of legs that wouldn’t quit.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] [T]his bird who came in to tell us about the aerobics was quite definitely an authentic, 24-carat gold stunner.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 107: It’s a page three stunner the day.
1999		Indep. Rev. 6 Nov. 4: And her chest is far from flat / Page-Three Stunna.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 259: Even at thirteen she was a stunner.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 25: Ah should’ve taken mair interest, just on the off chance she’d turn oot a stunner.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] Murdoch examined her up close, a real stunner.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 80: Wit an absolute fuckin stunner she is [ibid.] 135: ‘We’ll need tae fight over him, won’t we Monica?’ ‘Aw we will that, doll! Wee stunner like Azzy’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 749: He kept on [...] muttering things like ‘Cor what little stunners’ when Amber and Courtney were being wantonly provocative.

10. (US) an unusually good story or anecdote.

1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 50: Mr Seedeyman [...] penning his ‘stunners’ for his market-day Mercury.
1887		Lantern (N.O.) 5 Mar. 5: The little four-year old boy of Jack Horman’s told its mamma quite a stunner.

11. something remarkable.

1962

Tatler 31 Oct. n.p.: [caption] Slope Stunners for Advanced Fashion Planners — the Skit Kit.