take by surprise
take by surprise verb: to occur to someone when unexpected; to surprise.
Verb
take by surprise (third-person singular simple present takes by surprise, present participle taking by surprise, simple past took by surprise, past participle taken by surprise)
- To occur to someone when unexpected; to surprise.
- Kazakhstan's shooting team was taken by surprise when a spoof national anthem from the film Borat was used at a medal ceremony in Kuwait.2012 March 23, Barry Neild, “Borat's version of Kazakh anthem played at Kuwait medal ceremony”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- Both the South Korean government and US forces in the region appear to have been taken by surprise by Trump’s declared suspension of joint exercises.2018 June 12, Julian Borger, “US to suspend military exercises with South Korea, Trump says”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Forms of take by surprise
| third-person singular present | takes by surprise |
|---|---|
| present participle | taking by surprise |
| past | took by surprise |
| past participle | taken by surprise |
Questions about take by surprise
- What does take by surprise mean?
- Take by surprise means to occur to someone when unexpected; to surprise.
- What part of speech is take by surprise?
- Take by surprise is a verb.
- What is the past tense of take by surprise?
- The past tense of take by surprise is took by surprise.
Words near take by surprise in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: take by surprise (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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