startlement

Definitions

An instance of being startled; surprise.

Examples

“There is no pursing up and general startlement—the thing of all others I dread.”

“Whether by means large or small, noticed or almost imperceptible, poetry's startlements displace the existing self with a changed one.”

“I discern three interrelated levels at which startlement is experienced in Hitchcock. First, startlement may take⟳ the form⟳ of an actual event in the world. The extinguisher's rattle, for instance, is said by the truck driver to “get⟳ to you”; and, about the tap-tapping in Marnie, the heroine says that “it means they want⟳ in.””

CEFR level