STARTLE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Startle

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/stˈɑrtəl/ Listen

verb

Startle v. t.

To excite by sudden alarm, surprise, or apprehension; to frighten suddenly and not seriously; to alarm; to surprise. "The supposition, at least, that angels do sometimes assume bodies need not startle us."

To deter; to cause to deviate. (R.)

Synonyms: To start; shock; fright; frighten; alarm.

Startle v. i. (past & past part. startled; pres. part. startling) To move suddenly, or be excited, on feeling alarm; to start. "Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction?"

noun

Startle n. A sudden motion or shock caused by an unexpected alarm, surprise, or apprehension of danger. "After having recovered from my first startle, I was very well pleased with the accident."

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Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Startle" Quotes from Famous Books

... sometimes, that on a Sabbath morning, when the bell of Sandwick Church, hard by, had been ringing for divine service, I have seen the animals collect in numbers on the beach to listen to the strange sound, which held them so fixed and charmed, that it required an effort to startle them away. Now, however, the seals seemed to have deserted the place, and I was not sorry when Tom Kinlay proposed that we should give up our search for them and ...

— The Pilots of Pomona • Robert Leighton

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... doth seek By every lull to cool her infant's pain: "How ill she is," said he, "I may not speak, And yet I will, and tell my love all plain: If looks speak love-laws, I will drink her tears, And at the least 'twill startle ...

— Keats: Poems Published in 1820 • John Keats

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... divine of acknowledged power and position in any branch of the Christian Church were to put forth the statement that 'the writings of Moses do not fix the antiquity of man,' he would startle the ear of orthodoxy quite as much, but no more than did Chalmers in the early years of the present century. And if he would fare more hardly than the Scottish divine, and fall under the ban of church censure, which is not unlikely, it would ...

— Continental Monthly, Volume 5, Issue 4 • Various

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... and heavy for such a little fellow. Since then I have heard it frequently; and now sometimes when I stand at night in the forest and hear a sudden heavy thump in the underbrush, as if a big moose were striking the ground and shaking his antlers at me, it doesn't startle me in the least. It is only Br'er ...

— Ways of Wood Folk • William J. Long

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... for longevity may startle you somewhat. It is this: Become the subject of a mortal disease. Let half a dozen doctors thump you, and knead you, and test you in every possible way, and render their verdict that you have an internal complaint; they don't know exactly what it is, but it will certainly kill ...

— Over the Teacups • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

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