taken aback
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I was taken aback by how intense and vivid the descriptions were, and not only detailed, but very viscerally described … Mona Awad is not a generic prose writer,” Ah Sing says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
Posting social media fliers for free, I was taken aback when 80 people of all levels and backgrounds signed up for my first session, from ages 14 to 90.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
An invitation brings a smile to your face, but the fact that you were taken aback by the sender of the invite created just enough friction in the process to give you pause.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
Europeans constantly seem taken aback at how seriously Americans take themselves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Alice looked taken aback and, from somewhere behind the house, Bingo howled.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
