Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
startlement. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
startlement, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
startlement in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
startlement you have here. The definition of the word
startlement will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
startlement, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
startle + -ment
Noun
startlement (plural startlements)
- An instance of being startled; surprise.
1889, Constance Macewen, A Cavalier's Ladye: A Romance of the Isle of Wight in the Seventeenth Century, page 338:There is no pursing up and general startlement—the thing of all others I dread.
2015, Jane Hirshfield, Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World:Whether by means large or small, noticed or almost imperceptible, poetry's startlements displace the existing self with a changed one.
2016, D. A. Miller, Hidden Hitchcock, page 182: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.”