startle - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English startlen, stertlen, stertyllen (“to rush, stumble along”), from Old English steartlian (“to kick with the foot, struggle, stumble”), equivalent to start +‎ -le. Cognate with Old Norse stirtla (“to hobble, stagger”), Icelandic stirtla (“to straighten up, erect”). Compare also Middle English stertil (“hasty”). More at start.

startle (third-person singular simple present startles, present participle startling, simple past and past participle startled)

(intransitive) To move suddenly, or be excited, on feeling alarm; to start.
a horse that startles easily
- 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 56:
  Why shrinks the soul / Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Proposal of Marriage”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 127:
  He felt, too, that he was acting unjustly by Ethel: he had allowed a fortnight to elapse—he startled when he numbered up the days; it is strange how we allow them to glide imperceptibly away.
(transitive) To excite by sudden alarm, surprise, or apprehension; to frighten suddenly and not seriously; to alarm; to surprise.
- 1997, R. L. Stine, Say Cheese and Die, Again!:
  The high voice in the night air startled me. Without thinking, I started to run. Then stopped. I spun around, my heart heaving against my chest. And saw a boy. About my age.
(transitive, obsolete) To deter; to cause to deviate.
- 1660, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor of England:
  it would blast all their hopes, and startle all other princes from joining

to move or be excited on feeling alarm

to excite by sudden alarm, surprise, or apprehension

startle (plural startles)

A sudden motion or shock caused by an unexpected alarm, surprise, or apprehension of danger.
- 1845, George Hooker Colton, James Davenport Whelpley, chapter 1, in The American review:
  The figure of a man heaving in sight amidst these wide solitudes, always causes a startle and thrill of expectation and doubt, similar to the feeling produced by the announcement of " a strange sail ahead" on shipboard, during a long voyage.