startle
/ˈstɑːt(ə)l/US/ˈstɑɹt(ə)l/
startle verb: to move suddenly, or be excited, on feeling alarm; to start.
Verb
startle (third-person singular simple present startles, present participle startling, simple past and past participle startled)
- To move suddenly, or be excited, on feeling alarm; to start.
- a horse that startles easily
- Why shrinks the soul / Back on herself, and startles at destruction?1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 56
- Synonyms:
- start
- To excite by sudden alarm, surprise, or apprehension; to frighten suddenly and not seriously; to alarm; to surprise.
- The supposition, at least, that angels do sometimes assume bodies need not startle us.1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC
- Nothing could startle her, make her scold or make her cry. She did not complain, she did not rebel.1896, Joseph Conrad, chapter I, in An Outcast of the Islands, London: T. Fisher Unwin […], →OCLC, part I, page 10
- To deter; to cause to deviate.
- it would blast all their hopes, and startle all other princes from joining1660, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor of England
- As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
- Synonyms:
- deter
Noun
startle (plural startles)
- 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.1845, George Hooker Colton, James Davenport Whelpley, chapter 1, in The American review
startle meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
startle in Tamil
- திடுக்கிட வை
startle in Urdu
- چونکنا, چونکانا
startle in Bengali
- চমকে উঠা, আঁতকে উঠা
startle in Malayalam
- frighten, surprise, scare
- പരിഭ്രമിപ്പിക്കുക, ഞെട്ടിക്കുക, ഭയപ്പെടുത്തുക, നടുക്കുക, പേടിപ്പിക്കുക, മിരട്ടുക
More languagesFewer languages
- startle in Kannada
- ಚಕಿತಗೊಳಿಸು, ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯಗೊಳಿಸು, ಬೆರಗುಪಡಿಸು, ಬೆದರಿಸು
- startle in Arabic
- فَاجَأَ fājaʔa, بَاغَثَ bāḡaṯa
- startle in Thai
- ความตกใจ kwaam dtòk jai
- startle in Vietnamese
- làm giật mình, làm hoảng hốt
Examples of startle in a sentence
- 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.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Proposal of Marriage”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry...
- The high voice in the night air startled me.1997, R. L. Stine, Say Cheese and Die, Again!:
Synonyms of startle
Forms of startle
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | startles |
| present participle | startling |
| past participle | startled |
| past | startled |
| Noun | |
| plural | startles |
Origin of startle
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.
Words formed from startle
Phrases with startle
Questions about startle
- What does startle mean?
- Startle means to move suddenly, or be excited, on feeling alarm; to start.
- What is startle in Tamil?
- Startle in Tamil is திடுக்கிட வை. See Startle meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use startle in a sentence?
- 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.
- What part of speech is startle?
- Startle can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce startle?
- Startle is pronounced /ˈstɑːt(ə)l/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of startle?
- The past tense of startle is startled.
Words near startle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: startle (page history and authors); startle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); startle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); startle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); startle (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); startle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-startle.wav.
Cite this entry: “startle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/startle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.