gestoßen

Gestoßen is the past participle of the German verb stoßen, which means to push, shove, or knock against something or someone. It is used to form perfect tenses with the auxiliary haben when the action is transitive: Der Hund hat mich gestoßen. In intransitive uses that describe a collision or impact, the auxiliary is often sein: Ich bin gegen die Tür gestoßen.

The sense of gestoßen can be physical (a push or collision) or, less commonly, figurative (to encounter or affect something by a push). It appears in various phrase structures, for example in expressions like jemandem in den Weg stoßen (to get in someone’s way) or einen Stoß geben (to give a shove). The related noun Stoß denotes a push, shock, or impact.

Spelling and grammar: the past participle is gest oßen, written with the ß after a long vowel sound, hence gestoßen. The verb stoßen itself has the present forms stößt, er stößt, and the simple past stieß; the related reflexive use is sich den Kopf stoßen (to bang one’s head).

Related terms: anstoßen is a separate verb meaning to toast (as in raising a glass) and should not be confused with the physical push sense of stoßen.

In summary, gestoßen is primarily the past participle of stoßen, used for both transitive pushes and intransitive collisions, with distinctions in auxiliary selection and common idiomatic phrases in German.