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to strike with amazement; to confound with wonder, surprise, or fear. These thoughts may startle well, but not astound The virtuous mind. Milton.

A fire started ahead of a forest or prairie fire to burn only against the wind, so that when the two fires meet both must go out for lack of fuel.

The point or line from which a start is made; a starting place or a goal in various games. To their appointed base they went. Dryden.

atalogue in general. On Fame's eternal beadroll worthy to be field. Spenser. It is quite startling, on going over the beadroll of English worthies, to find how few are directly represented in the male line. Quart. Rev.

d in port and some other wines after long keeping. It consists of pure, shining scales of tartar, supposed to resemble the wing of a bee.

ng new, as a new form or state of being, or course of action; to take the first step; to start. "Tears began to flow." Dryden. When I begin, I will also make an end. 1 Sam. iii. 12.

To throw into disorder; to tumble. [R.] From her betumbled couch she starteth. Shak.

To shrink; to start back; to draw back, from lack of courage or resolution; to flinch; to quail. Blench not at thy chosen lot. Bryant. This painful, heroic task he undertook, and never blenched from its fulfillment. Jeffrey.

An exclamation used to startle or frighten. [Spelt also boh and boo.]

peded by unforeseen difficulties; to take alarm; to exhibit hesitancy and indecision. We start and boggle at every unusual appearance. Glanvill. Boggling at nothing which serveth their purpose. Barrow.

To cause to start or spring forth; to dislodge, as conies, rabbits, etc.

One who bolts; esp.: (a) A horse which starts suddenly aside.

A darting away; a starting off or aside.

, wandering from place to place with flocks and herds, and living on their milk, like the Tartars; also, a place in the mountain pastures inclosed for the shelter of cattle or their keepers. [Obs.] [Written also boley, bolye, bouillie.] Spenser.

The act of looking out suddenly, as from behind a screen, so as to startle some one (as by children in play), or of looking out and drawing suddenly back, as if frightened. I for sorrow sung, That such a king should play bopeep, And go the fools among. Shak.

A curve, in which a body, starting from a given point, and descending solely by the force of gravity, will reach another given point in a shorter time than it could by any other path. This curve of quickest descent, as it is sometimes called, is, in a vacuum, the same as the cycloid.

A quick motion; a start. [Obs.] Sackville.

The European redstart; -- so called from the red color of its tail.

A spitlike start, on the head of a young stag.

pranks, vulgar tricks and postures. Nor that it will ever constitute a wit to conclude a tart piece of buffoonery with a "What makes you blush" Spectator.