startle
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
His lyrics also startle the way poems do.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
While her decision to stand down as an MSP was obvious and much anticipated, it still has the capacity to startle.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2025
Omakayas was careful not to startle him or gaze too long into his mean, clouded eyes.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
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
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
Too many enjoy the heady rush of attention they get from doing or saying something that startles or provokes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2022
A flash of white startles me from my thoughts.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
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
“The Pineapple” promised to be intense, but even hours before the show had begun, it had me startled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 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
Ivy stared back at her with wide, startled eyes, and whispered, “Neither were you.”
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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
The red, as startling as a cymbal clap, strikes the eye, but the impending drama remains out of sight.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 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
The private life of disgraced Silicon Valley startup founder Elizabeth Holmes will soon be aired to the public in a startling new documentary filmed in the 34 days before she went to prison.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
Her cinnamon-toast hair was tied back, which made her almond eyes look even larger and more startling.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
Vocabulary lists containing startle
"All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury
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"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 5
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The Circuit
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