startle

His lyrics also startle the way poems do.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025

But when she sees another dog, everything changes: she snarls, barks loud enough to startle a city block, and lunges with so much force it takes all my strength to hold her back.

From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2025

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

The researchers wondered, then, whether the toe taps were a form of vibrational signaling where the frogs used it as a way to startle or distract the prey before they fed.

From Science Daily ● May 28, 2024

The word itself had lost little of its power to startle and had, due to my ignorance of the physical place it occupied on the globe, assumed a peculiar life of its own.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

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

What probably startles beginning bromeliad growers most, even after providing diligent care, is the inevitable decline of the original or mother plant after it flowers.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2023

But it’s Lindsey’s James who startles the play out its predictable maneuvers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2023

The sight of them visibly startles people who have not thought about them for years.

From New York Times ● Aug. 16, 2022

I push back my chair so suddenly that Boomer startles and skulks away upstairs.

From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish

The initial announcement of SpaceX’s bond sale had startled some investors, some of whom sold their shares.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026

Monticello may have the authoritative presence of a civic monument, but the moment you step inside you are startled by its human scale, and by its intimate and personal character.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

Fabio Capello, the Juventus manager, was so startled by the 18-year-old that he reportedly tried to sign him.

From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026

Cenet said he was startled to see that "everyday life continued" on the ship after the captain's announcement.

From Barron's ● May 6, 2026

He startled at my hair, then seemed to freeze in place.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

They lie in mud, shells, ice and rock - fragments of evidence from a time when the Atlantic appears to have changed with startling speed.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

The practical effect, according to Fred Vogler, who has been the Bowl’s principal sound designer since 2003, is startling.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026

The evidence for this startling conclusion comes from the most significant opinion study you’ve never read or read about.

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

The superior returns of what Hartnett calls the “red, white and boom,” compared with Britain, is all the more startling considering that nearly all of that came in the past century and a half.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 3, 2026

Charles had a rather startling talent for forgery which, according to Camilla, dated from early childhood—expert report-card signatures by the fourth grade, entire excuse notes by the sixth.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt