startle

He understands how to keep viewers vigilant, how to shock them and startle them as soon as they think they know where he’s headed.

From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026

Rather than attempting to lure the animals toward the speaker, the researchers played the sounds loudly enough to provoke a startle response.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026

Percussion instruments—including a whistle and slap-stick—interrupt and startle.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

The next thing Ms Lees knew, the kangaroo had launched towards her car, which she had slowed to a crawl so as not to startle the animal, and started to attack it.

From BBC ● May 23, 2025

It bounced harmlessly off his chest, but it did startle him.

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

More than 60 years on, the scene still startles.

From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2026

I am not sure what startles more—that the feat was achieved at all or that it was Mr. Koolhaas’s firm that pulled it off.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026

Her very English outrage startles him from his role as an Israeli Defense Forces soldier “defending my people” and into that of a teenager defending himself against accusations of being from Manchester.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 4, 2023

He startles Queen Ramonda and her daughter Shuri in a rural area of their Black utopia.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 28, 2022

For a brief second the sound of laughter startles me.

From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung

Haloed by light, the sitter—seemingly startled by our presence—does not occupy so much as define space, which feels malleable, strangely unstable, at times a mirage.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

The difference also appeared across all 37 bird species examined, including easily startled magpies and pigeons that typically allow people to approach much more closely.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 22, 2026

He looked startled for a moment and then with an uncharacteristic grin replied that he considered that a welcome compliment.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

"The two US deportees looked startled and kept asking which country is this and where it is," said a source.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

The startled bird tumbled from its perch, let loose a shrill whistle, and flapped its wings in panic.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

You would think so, except that 19 of those 67 seats were won by Israel’s “Arab parties,” an all-time high, and that startling fact has thrown the entire political system into confusion.

From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2026

But notice this is already different from the science-fiction fears birthed before AI was a real thing, when simple premises permitted so many startling conclusions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026

At the Shrine, though, each song was still a startling feat of storytelling — a raw wound that somehow hadn’t healed at all.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

A Russian drone zips across the computer screen, startling the commanders keeping watch over the battlefield via a live stream in their bunker.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

“You getting on or what, Aven?” the bus driver asked, startling me.

From "Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus" by Dusti Bowling