Startle

Definition: Startle

Startle

Noun

1. A sudden involuntary movement: "he awoke with a start".

Verb

1. To stimulate to action : "..startled him awake.".

2. Move or jump suddenly, as if in surprise or alarm; "She startled when I walked into the room".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "startle" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1509. (references)

Note: Startle \Star"tle\, transitive verb. [imperfect & past participle. Startled; Startling.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Startle

Excitation

Agitate, perturb, ruffle, fluster, shake, disturb, startle, shock, stagger; give one a shock, give one a turn; strike all of a heap; stun, astound, electrify, galvanize, petrify.

Fear

Inspire fear, excite fear, inspire awe, excite awe; raise aprehensions; be in a daze, bulldoze; faze, feeze; give an alarm, raise an alarm, sound an alarm; alarm, startle, scare, cry " wolf," disquiet, dismay; fright, frighten, terrify; astound; fright from one's propriety; fright out of one's senses, fright out of one's wits, fright out of one's seven senses; awe; strike all of a heap, strike an awe into, strike terror; harrow up the soul, appall, unman, petrify, horrify; pile on the agony.

Inexpectation

Surprise, startle, take aback, electrify, stun, stagger, take away one's breath, throw off one's guard; astonish, dumbfound; (strike with wonder).

Unbelief Doubt

Startle, stagger; shake one's faith, shake one's belief, stagger one's faith, stagger one's belief.

Wonder

Surprise, astonish, amaze, astound; dumfound, dumfounder; startle, dazzle; daze; strike, strike with wonder, strike with awe; electrify; stun, stupefy, petrify, confound, bewilder, flabbergast, stagger, throw on one's beam ends, fascinate, turn the head, take away one's breath, strike dumb; make one's hair stand on end, make one's tongue cleave to the roof of one's mouth; make one stare.

Crosswords: Startle

Books

• Startle Modification: Implications for Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and Clinical Science (reference)

• The Startle Effect (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Health

One such location, for example, is in the brainstem close to structures that are responsible for the startle response, an automatic reaction to an unexpected stimulus involving rapid muscle contraction. (references)

During the past 30 years, infant hearing screening has been attempted with a number of different test methods, including cardiac response audiometry, respiration audiometry, alteration of sucking patterns, movement or startle in response to acoustic stimuli, various behavioral paradigms, and measurement of acoustic reflexes. (references)

Onset of the disorder usually occurs at 6 months of age. Symptoms may include motor weakness, startle reaction to sound, early blindness, progressive mental and motor deterioration, frequent respiratory infections, macrocephaly (an abnormally enlarged head), doll-like facial appearance, cherry-red spots in the back of the eyes, seizures, and myoclonus (shock-like contractions of a muscle). (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expressions using "startle": startle reaction ♦ startle reflex ♦ startle response. Additional references.

Albanian

tremb (dismay, frighten, give a start, intimidate, scare, shoo), befasoj (flabbergast, surprise, take aback), alarmoj (alarm, disquiet). (various references)

Arabic 

‏فاجأ (catch, overtake, stagger, stun, stupefy, take), ‏نفور (antipathy, aversion, disaffection, disinclination, dislike, distaste, estrangement, indisposition, offish, recoil, reluctance, repugnance, repulsion, revulsion), ‏جفل (boggle, break cover, flinch, shy, wince), ‏إجفال (boggle, flinch, shy, wince), ‏روع فجأة, ‏دهش (amaze, astonish, stagger, stun, surprise). (various references)

Bulgarian 

стряскам (jerk up, rattle, rock), учудвам (astonish, astound, surprise), сепвам (balk, take aback), слисвам (amaze, bemuse, boggle, bowl over, flabbergast, stun, transfix), разтърсвам (jolt, jounce, shake up), изплашвам (alarm, frighten, rouse, scare, scarring, start, stun, warn away). (various references)

Chinese 

駭 (astonish), �'� (beat a drum). (various references)

Czech

vyplašit (alarm, alert, frighten away, rouse, work up), postrašit (frighten, terrify), polekat (appal, frighten, scare, start), překvapit (overtake, stagger, strike, surprise). (various references)

Danish

startle refleks (startle reaction, startling effect). (various references)

Dutch

schrikreflex (startle reaction, startling effect). (various references)

Farsi 

پرش (Bounce, Convulsion, Fly, Jump, Jumpoff, Leap, Spout, Wing), وحشت زده شدن (Appall), وحشت زدگی (Dismay), تکان دادن (Budge, Convulse, Hitch, Hustle, Impulse, Jar, Jolt, Jounce, Move, Shake, Stir, Twiddle, Wag, Wiggle), جهش (Braid, Caper, Jump, Lunge, Mutation, Pounce, Spurt, Vault), ازجاپراندن , رمانیدن , رم دادن (Fright, Hare, Rouse). (various references)

Finnish

säikyttää (frighten, scare), pelottaa (deter, fill with awe, frighten, inspire with fear, intimidate, scare, terrify), hätkähdyttää. (various references)

French

surprendre, faire peur, effaroucher, effarouchement, étonner. (various references)

German

aufschrecken (be startled, jolt, rouse, scare, start up, to scare). (various references)

Greek 

καταπλήσσω (amaze, astound, bedazzle, bemuse, daze, stun, surprise), ξάφνιασμα (jolt), πτοώ (abash, cow, daunt, overawe), πτοούμαι (quail, shy), τρομάζω (alarm, appal, cow, daunt, dismay, frighten, funk, horrify, intimidate, petrify, scare, terrify). (various references)

Hebrew 

לזעזע (agitate, convulse, jar, jolt, shake, shock, stagger, stun), ל�"קפיץ (galvanize, jolt, promote, spring), ל�"חרי�" (appal, appall), ל�"ב�"יל (alarm, frighten, scare), ל�"רתיע (deter, discourage), ל�"סלי�". (various references)

Hungarian

megijeszt (affright, aghast, daunt, frighten, give one the creeps, intimidate, scare, sit up, terrify, to afear, to alarm, to cow, to daunt, to dismay, to fright, to frighten, to haze, to spook, to terrify), felriaszt (flush, rouse, to alarm, to alert, to flush, to rouse, to scare up, to start, to startle). (various references)

Indonesian

mengejutkan (appalling, shocking). (various references)

Italian

spaventare (alarm, be frightened, deter, discourage, frighten, get scared, scare), far trasalire. (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

あっと言わせる (cherubic, errr, Excuse me..., floundering and almost drowning, innocent, say, to startle, well). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

あっといわせる (to startle). (various references)

Manx

cur er moostey. (various references)

Pig Latin

artlestay

Portuguese

surpreender (amaze, astonish, astound, catch, come upon, daze, get hold of, overtake, surprise, surprising, take by surprise), sobressaltar (jump, surprise), chocar (breed, brood, bump, cannon, hatch, hit, hurtle, incubate, jar, ram, scunner, set, shake, shock, sit, strike, stun), atemorizar (frighten, intimidate), assustar (affray, affright, appal, appall, bully, daunt, dismay, frighten, funk, intimidate, scare), alarmar (alarm, frighten, raise the alarm, sound the alarm). (various references)

Romanian

surprinde (astonish, catch, overhear, overtake, surprise), speria brusc, spaimã (affright, agony, bugaboo, dismay, dread, fear, fright, funk, horror, scare, scourge, terror), se înfiora (crawl, creep, flicker, flinch, shudder), tresãrire (jerk, jump, start, starting, thrill, wince), face sã tresarã, înfiora (frighten, shake, shiver, shudder, thrill, tremble). (various references)

Russian 

всполошить (rouse), вздрагивать (flinch, jump, wince), напугать. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

trgnuti (draw, jerk, pull, recoil, tug, twitch, yank), iznenaditi (surprise, take aback, upset). (various references)

Spanish

sobrecoger, asustar (affright, alarm, frighten, scare), alarmar (alarm, frighten). (various references)

Swedish

spritta, skrämma upp, skrämma (alarm, appal, appall, browbeat, bulldoze, cow, daunt, fright, frighten, horrify, intimidate, overawe, scare, spook, terrify). (various references)

Turkish

korkutmak (administer a shock, affright, alarm, appal, appall, awe, bulldoze, cow, daunt, dismay, fright, frighten, funk, horrify, intimidate, overawe, scare, terrorize, threaten), şaşmak (be astonished, be baffled, be surprised, marvel, wonder), şaşırtmak (addle, amaze, astonish, astound, baffle, bamboozle, bedevil, befog, befuddle, bemuse, bewilder, bowl over, confound, confuse, daze, discompose, disconcert, discountenance, dislocate, disorient, disorientate, distract, embarrass, embrangle, flabbergast, floor, flummox, fuddle, give smb. a tumble, gravel, intrigue, jolt, knock back, mislead, moither, mystify, nonplus, obfuscate, perplex, put smb. out of countenance, puzzle, rattle, shock, stick, stun, stupefy, surprise, take aback, wow), afallamak (be amazed, be astonished, be gravelled), ürkmek (balk at, be appalled, blench, boggle, dread, get a fright, have a fright, jump, lose one's nerve, quail, scare, shy, start, take fright, wince), ürkütmek (administer a shock, appal, appall, give a start, give smb. a start, scare, start). (various references)

Turkmen 

geсirgendirmek (surprise). (various references)

Ukrainian

вразити (slay, take aback), злякати (affray), здригатися (creep, flinch, jump, shudder, wince), переляк (affright, boggle, consternation, fright, funk, scare, willies, wind up). (various references)

Vietnamese 

sự giật mình, cái giật mình điều l� m giật mình. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "startle": startled, startlement, startlements, startler, startlers, startles. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Startle" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: schvartze, Searelle, Staithe, stardle, starkle, starte, sterle, stitle, stratle. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: rattles, starlet.

-1 letter: alerts, alters, artels, estral, laster, latest, latter, lattes, ratels, rattle, salter, slater, staler, stater, stelar, talers, taster, taters, tetras, treats.

-2 letters: alert, alter, arles, artel, aster, earls, lares, laser, later, latte, lears, least, rales, ratel, rates, reals, seral, setal, slate, stale, stare, start, state, steal, stela, taels, taler, tales, tares, tarts, taste.

+1 letter: alertest, battlers, blatters, brattles, clatters, flatters, lustrate, maltster, martlets, partlets, platters, prattles, rattlers, slattern, splatter, sprattle, starlets, startled, startler, startles, tartlets, tattlers, tertials, tutelars.

+2 letters: allotters, alterants, bractlets, filtrates, laterites, literates, literatus, lustrated, lustrates, maltreats, maltsters, paltriest, prattlers, raclettes, rebuttals, remittals, resultant, saltpeter, saltwater, slatterns, splatters, sprattled, sprattles, startlers, statelier, sterilant, streamlet, tarletans, tolerates, translate, trawlnets, trustable.