Word.ws English Dictionary

startle up

startle up verb: to flush a target, usually birds and often accidentally.

Verb

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

  1. (dated) To flush a target, usually birds and often accidentally.
    • Take care not to startle up the quail.

Forms of startle up

third-person singular presentstartles up
present participlestartling up
past participlestartled up
paststartled up

Questions about startle up

What does startle up mean?
Startle up means to flush a target, usually birds and often accidentally.
What part of speech is startle up?
Startle up is a verb.
What is the past tense of startle up?
The past tense of startle up is startled up.

Words near startle up in the dictionary

  1. startings
  2. startish
  3. startle
  4. startle reflex
  5. startle reflexes
  6. startle up
  7. startled
  8. startledly
  9. startlement
  10. startlements
  11. startler

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: startle up (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.

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