Taken by surprise

Usage examples of startled.

The lamps flicker, wicks running dry but as he takes his place with the other laborers at the back of the nave as he murmurs reflexive words of prayer, the sacrist makes a startled exclamation and halts halfway down the aisle.

Someone even suggested that spriggans, those squeaky little green creatures like the one that had startled her in Serem's house so long ago, were not the harmless little nuisances they appeared to be, but diabolical killers working under the direction of some renegade archmage.

The servant gave Sarai a startled glance, then ignored her as she tended to her mistress' needs.

Tabaea thought she sounded almost startled, not at the question, but at her own reply.

Running with all her might, not daring to look back, Sarai ran on, leaping over the one startled, rag-clad figure in her path.

He looked startled, then hurt, and a twinge of guilt made her shrug her shoulders.

Then her expression changed so entirely that Sanglant stepped sideways, startled, as if her gaze were an arrow that he had to avoid.

Sapientia turned to him, startled, and grasped his wrist, but Eudokia, amazingly, chuckled.

No one was talking Looking down into the pit, he was so startled he almost lost his balance and fell.

He dozed off at once and was startled awake much later by the sound of Hathumod's voice, as soft as the brush of rabbit fur across his skin but rather more persistent.

She shoved him off with a grunt as Rufus, startled, turned around to see four young toughs headed their way with ugly grins on their faces.

With a startled grimace, lips pulled back like a dog baring its teeth, he groped at his belt.

Monks murmured in surprise and alarm, and a startled servant, hearing that name, scurried out the door.

Twin spears stabbed down through the hole, and she was actually so startled that she scrambled back to avoid their thrust.

That she had startled him was obvious from the way he looked at her, leaned forward with hands pressing on the rock.