Startle

  • 131Wonder — (Roget s Thesaurus) < N PARAG:Wonder >N GRP: N 1 Sgm: N 1 wonder wonder marvel Sgm: N 1 astonishment astonishment amazement wonderment bewilderment Sgm: N 1 amazedness amazedness &c. >Adj. Sgm: N 1 admiration …

    English dictionary for students

  • 132start — [OE] Start originally meant ‘jump, leap, caper’ (‘Him lust not [he did not like] to play nor start, nor to dance, nor to sing’, Chaucer, Romance of the Rose 1366). This gradually evolved via ‘make a sudden movement’ to ‘begin a journey’, but it… …

    The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins