Word: aback
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Acquired Taste. In Baltimore, Herbert Jackson, 62, was awarded a divorce from Mrs. Bonnie Jackson, 54, after he explained that he had answered her lonely hearts ad describing her as 5 ft. 4 in. and 118 Ibs., was taken aback to find that she "was about 450 Ibs. and over 6 ft. tall," and that although he "tried to handle her as best I could," she proved "too much for me when she grabbed the kettle and scalded me, and then shot at me and then left me, saying I didn't appreciate a fat woman...
Adenauer was taken aback. Mendès shrugged. It had to be, he insisted. Adenauer objected that his coalition leaders would never agree in effect to muzzle German parties and newspapers. Ask them, suggested Mendès. Adenauer said he would see them when he got back to Bonn, and let Mendès know. That would not do, said Mendès; he had to know this week. Adenauer agreed to summon his coalition leaders to Paris...
Somewhat taken aback, Knudsen asked: "What do you have...
That irascible old Bull Mooser, Harold Le Claire Ickes, was 58 when Franklin Roosevelt was elected President in 1932; he had put in nearly 30 years fighting for lost political causes, and he seemed almost taken aback at finding himself on the winning side at last. He recovered quickly. In 13 years as Secretary of the Interior, Honest Harold (a nickname that made him squirm) became a national institution. His bristling incorruptibility, his old-fashioned reformer's views, his endless suspicions of all other politicos, his Donald Duck temper and acid-tongued campaign speeches made him a figure unique...
...love with an actress, and just when Misia was feeling most deeply forsaken, Jose Maria Sert, the Spanish painter, walked into her apartment wearing a sombrero and Spanish cape. Before leaving, he asked her to go to Rome with him for a few weeks. Amused, irritated and taken aback, she heard herself say she would be delighted. With Sert she "knew what it was to have a dazzled heart," and for the first time had the "calm and frightening feeling of something final...