startle

verb

1. (intransitive)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?”

   “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.

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

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

   “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. (obsolete, transitive)To deter; to cause to deviate.

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

   “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.”

noun

1. 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.”