This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Learn more

Another word for startle

a-z
Verb

  1. To cause to experience a sudden momentary shock

    See also:

    surprise

    excite

  2. To fill with fear

    Idioms:
    See also:

    fear

  3. To impress strongly by what is unexpected or unusual

    Idioms:
    See also:

    surprise

Noun

  1. A sudden and involuntary movement

    See also:

    move

© Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Another word for startle

Verb
  1. See also:

    surprise

    frighten

© WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD® ROGET’S A-Z THESAURUS by Charlton Laird and the editors of Webster’s New World dictionaries. Copyright © 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Sentence Examples

  • "I didn't mean to startle you," he said.

  • Selyn wrenched the door open fast enough to startle Deidre.

  • You'll startle him and then he'll be killed.

  • "I...didn't mean to startle everyone," Edith said.

  • Like Jean Hardouin he got to believe that a great deal of what is called classical literature was compiled by anonymous authors at a much later date, and he used frequently to startle his colleagues, the Gustavian academicians, by his audacious paradoxes.

More sentences →

Words that mention startle in the Dictionary

Words near startle in the Thesaurus