startle

Amid the whirlwind turns in U.S.-Latin American relations, the rapid unraveling of U.S.-Colombia relations has been especially startling.

The robot’s booming voice startled the wolves, and in that instant she pried one of them away.

Ethics experts said Newby has made a habit of flouting North Carolina’s rules on judicial conduct, a pattern startling in the state’s highest-ranking jurist.

Dangers were ever-present: One day Mr. Douglas-Hamilton was trampled by a rhino and on another he inadvertently startled a group of female elephants with calves.

Her conclusion was startling, her tone defiant: “Put me wherever you want: misguided socialist, toothless humanist, naïve novelist, useful idiot, apologist, denier, ally, contrarian, collaborator, traitor, inexcusable coward.”