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.
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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
“Sudden explosive noise, concussive blasts, and bright flashes have the potential to startle young birds, creating unnecessary risk during a critical period of development.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
Few people who have been on the national stage this long retain an ability to startle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 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
I startle awake, squinting and muttering, barely able to process his words.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
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
Teeth startles and then passes out, emitting his terrible stink.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
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
"I was startled awake and immediately went to my child's room."
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
She startled and noticed the credits were almost to the end.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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
In one startling episode, a 9-year-old Jeannette was wakened one night in the family’s home in Phoenix.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 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
Most startling of all: He has presented this property gambit, where ownership remains solely with him and his wife, as an act of goodwill.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
Frank showed him the kitchen, the boot room, the larder stocked with herbs and jars of preserves and beans and a startling number of tins of anchovies.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
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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