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

They then measured how the mice responded using a modified auditory startle test.

From Science Daily ● May 15, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

It triggers an automatic "startle response" to any loud noise.

From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2026

He wanted to jump up and whoop with joy, but Thor was curled up and asleep in the sling, and a good skunk caretaker would never startle his kit like that.

From "A Boy Called Bat" by Elana K. Arnold

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

When finally you see it, however, the pose chosen for the portrait startles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2023

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

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 28, 2022

A sound startles me—the scraping of the lock on the brig door.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone

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

A field of unharvested sunflowers had attracted mixed flocks of birds, especially goldfinches and bramblings, before they were startled into the air by a sparrowhawk.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

“I was really startled by it. It just kind of came in this wave, and then it just grew from there.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

Black said he was startled, although not totally surprised.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

The boy startled and dropped the coconut, water sloshing over his legs.

From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook

It was a kind of theatrical, fraternal, saber-rattling episode until Pacheco, perhaps misinterpreting some shouted orders, charged ahead alone with his long lance lowered, startling both sides.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

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

"I've never heard that before but that was heard again later in the wildfire season. That was startling," he said.

From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026

The pale green color was fading into a startling white.

From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova