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.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈstɑːt(ə)l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈstɑɹt(ə)l/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)təl

• Audio (Southern England)

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

1. (intransitive) To move suddenly, or be excited, on feeling alarm; to start.

   a horse that startles easily

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene v, page 1:

     Why shrinks the soul / Back on herself, and startles at destruction?

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Proposal of Marriage”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 127:

     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.

2. (transitive) To excite by sudden alarm, surprise, or apprehension; to frighten suddenly and not seriously; to alarm; to surprise.
   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:

     The supposition, at least, that angels do sometimes assume bodies need not startle us.

   • 1896, Joseph Conrad, chapter I, in An Outcast of the Islands, London: T. Fisher Unwin […], →OCLC, part I, page 10:

     Nothing could startle her, make her scold or make her cry. She did not complain, she did not rebel.

   • 1997, R. L. Stine, Say Cheese and Die, Again!:

     The high voice in the night air startled me. Without thinking, I started to run. Then stopped. I spun around, my heart heaving against my chest. And saw a boy. About my age.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To deter; to cause to deviate.
   • 1660, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor of England:

     it would blast all their hopes, and startle all other princes from joining

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     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.

• (to move suddenly): start
• (to excite suddenly): alarm, frighten, scare, surprise
• (deter): deter

• startling

startle (plural startles)

1. A sudden motion or shock caused by an unexpected alarm, surprise, or apprehension of danger.
   • 1845, George Hooker Colton, James Davenport Whelpley, chapter 1, in The American review:

     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.

• startler
• startlish

• skittish

• Slatter, Stalter, Statler, rattles, slatter, starlet