See Also: SHOCK, SUDDENNESS

1. Crops up when you least expect it, like dandruff —Robin Worthington
2. (I read the note over several times with a kind of stupid) incredulity, like an unbelieving prisoner reading the formal sentence of his own execution —Robert Traver
3. Started [at sound of a sudden call] like a horse at the sound of the bugle —Stefan Zweig
4. (She) started like a quiet, lovely insect into which someone had suddenly stabbed a pin —Elizabeth Spencer
5. Startling as curves in a mountain road —Lorrie Moore
6. (The idea was as) startling … as if in a blank wall before her a door had opened —Dorothy Canfield Fisher
7. (Perception as) startling as watching a feeling cross a face on Mount Rushmore —Paige Mitchell
8. Startling, like a face changing in front of you, from young to old, well to ill —Wilfrid Sheed
9. Surprised and shocked as if she had heard an explosion and seen her own shattered legs go flying across the floor —Rachel Ingalls
10. Surprised as a sardine that went to sleep in the ocean and woke up in a delicatessen store —Arthur Baer
11. Surprised [physical reaction] me as much as if I were a baby suddenly popped from the womb —Angela Carter
12. Surprise made me look like a goldfish —Rebecca West
13. Surprises keep us living: as when the first light surprised our infant eyes —Louis MacNeice
14. Surprising as a child’s laugh rising higher, higher, higher —Babette Deutsch
15. (Sharp pain pierced his chest, as quick and) unexpected as the materialization of a hairline crack in bone —Paige Mitchell
16. Unexpected as aluminum siding in Buckingham Palace —Anon
17. Unexpected as best seller status for a book of Latin quotations —Anon
18. Unexpected as a heart attack —Anon
19. Unexpected as a heat wave in February —Anon
20. Unexpected as gourmet food in a second rate hotel —Anon
21. Unexpected as snow in July —Anon
22. Unexpectedly wonderful treat, like blue skies and warmth in a chilly spring —Janet Flanner
23. You never know what somebody’s got in him: like the man with germs, suddenly he’s down in bed with a crisis —Clifford Odets

bolt from the blue A sudden and entirely unexpected or unforeseen occurrence; a complete surprise; also, the adverbial phrases out of the blue and out of a clear blue sky ’unexpectedly, suddenly; without warning or notice.’ The allusion is to suddenness and surprise similar to that which would be experienced if a bolt of lightning were unexpectedly to appear in a cloudless sky. Although bolt from the blue was in use as early as 1837, out of the blue did not appear until 1919.

bug-eyed Astonished, surprised; aghast with wonder or awe; literally, to have protruding eyes as do certain species of bugs. Though this precise adjective form did not appear until the 1920s, conceptually equivalent expressions date from considerably earlier.

knock for a loop See CONFUSION.

Scarborough warning Little or no forewarning, no previous notice; a total shock. This expression may allude to the 1557 siege of Scarborough castle, which took its inhabitants completely off guard. Another possible origin concerns a harsh law enacted in Scarborough which allowed the punishment of robbery suspects prior to a trial. In any event, the expression, used frequently in Great Britain until the mid-1800s, is virtually never heard today.

taken aback Surprised or stunned into immobility. This was originally a nautical term describing a square-rigged ship whose sails are blown against the mast, thus preventing further forward movement. An early figurative usage employs the term all aback: