Startle
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A sudden motion or shock caused by an unexpected alarm, surprise, or apprehension of danger.
"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."
- 2 a sudden involuntary movement wordnet
- 1 To move suddenly, or be excited, on feeling alarm; to start. intransitive
"a horse that startles easily"
- 2 to stimulate to action wordnet
- 3 To excite by sudden alarm, surprise, or apprehension; to frighten suddenly and not seriously; to alarm; to surprise. transitive
"The supposition, at least, that angels do sometimes assume bodies need not startle us."
- 4 move or jump suddenly, as if in surprise or alarm wordnet
- 5 To deter; to cause to deviate. obsolete, transitive
"it would blast all their hopes, and startle all other princes from joining"
Example
More examples"We don't want to startle anyone."
Etymology
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.
Related phrases
More for "startle"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.