[f. STARTLE v.]
1. An experience of being startled; a start or shock of surprise or alarm. Also (predicatively), something that startles.
1714. Spect., No. 599, ¶ 4. After having recovered myself from my first Startle, I was very well pleas’d at the Accident which had befallen me.
1823. Byron, Juan, X. i. Newton … found In that slight startle from his contemplation … A mode of proving that [etc.].
1836. R. H. Froude, Rem. (1838), I. 426. Burton’s death … was quite a startle to me.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 1029. [The colt] bearing, without a startle, the fall of the pail-handle, [etc.].
1894. Crockett, Raiders (ed. 3), 166. This gave me a great startle.
b. nonce-use. A startling perception of something.
1854. Lowell, Jrnl. Italy, Pr. Wks. 1890, I. 191. You receive hints and startles of it through the senses first.
2. A sudden rush (of water).
1912. Masefield, in Engl. Rev., Oct., 369. Startles of water made the swing ports gush.
