Give someone a sudden surprise

Usage examples of startle.

The eloquent allocutions addressed to the masses which Bonaparte had, as it were, invented, produced effects in those days of patriotism and miracle that were absolutely startling.

These facts of allotropism have some corollaries connected with them rather startling to us of the nineteenth century.

Lydia still had not looked at Ambry except for that first startled moment of recognition.

The mamuti, anticipating the need for explanations to relieve the anxieties caused by this startling innovation, had mentally searched the theoretical construct of their metaphysical world for answers that would satisfy.

While these unfinished exclamations were actually passing my lips I chanced to cross that infernal mat, and it is no more startling than true, but at my word a quiver of expectation ran through that gaunt web--a rustle of anticipation filled its ancient fabric, and one frayed corner surged up, and as I passed off its surface in my stride, the sentence still unfinished on my lips, wrapped itself about my left leg with extraordinary swiftness and so effectively that I nearly fell into the arms of my landlady, who opened the door at the moment and came in with a tray and the steak and tomatoes mentioned more than once already.

The idea that this Antler might be opposed to her captivity startled her, and she lowered her voice and spoke in a more moderate tone.

So that the day he took possession of his apartments, and looked over his bills, he made the startling discovery that this short apprenticeship of Paris had cost him fifty-thousand francs, one-fourth of his fortune.

Usually she was far ahead of him in her shrewd analysis of the astronaut program, and her witty observations on the other men of the Solid Six were startling in their perceptions.

After a startled moment, the banksman took it, gave a hasty shake, then touched the brim of his hat.

He had seen the city before, had battled on this very plain, but he had never heard the wind whisper through the valley as it did today, and the sound startled him.

Little by little, Bernard lost the feeling of having been startled, and began to perceive that he could reason about his trouble.

Bland were under discussion, Bland himself was busy with his trousers, which were showing an alarming inclination to make startling revelations.

She quickly scanned the startled pedestrians, slowed down by the galvanizing shout which had caught the attention of even blasé New York night strollers.

Now, because he was lost in the urgency of her embrace, the blat of a horn startled him so badly he jumped.

The entire first page of this special edition was taken up with the photograph of Bruno and Boots at the cannon, looking startled and guilty.