Word: aback
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Observers far from Salt Lake City may have been taken aback by Anderson's boldness - or rudeness, depending on their view - but no one in the city was particularly surprised by this maverick politician's latest move...
...Iran from resupplying Hizballah with rockets and launchers but also to warn Lebanon that Jerusalem can set back the country's restoration even further if it chooses. Of the estimated 300 who have died so far in Lebanon, most have been civilians. For its part, Hizballah was taken aback by Israel's ferocity. In a TV interview last week, Nasrallah lamented, "Tell me about a war that was waged against a state because of two soldiers. This has never happened in history. Nor has Israel done it anytime before...
...Stopping for lunch at an upscale Crepe-Away diner, I'm taken aback by the sheer normality of the scene. Young people hanging out and flirting? Check. Bad American pop music on the loudspeakers? Yeah, got that. Families playing peek-a-boo with their kids over menus? That, too. It was a typical Lebanese scene and one that would be instantly recognizable in, say, northern California. It was easy to forget that just a few miles down the mountain roads, people could suffer an Israeli air strike at any minute - in fact, if there had been any bombings, we would...
...crack open your skull; they just drill a couple of small holes to put the wires through. Tiny holes. Itsy-bitsy holes. Teensy-weensy little holes. The propaganda they give you when you sign up for the operation describes the holes as "dime-sized." That took me aback. The dime, there's no denying, is a seriously undersized coin. But frankly, I wasn't thinking coins at all. I was thinking grains of sand. A dime is huge! The hospital printout of all the things you can't do afterward describes it as "major brain surgery." Is there minor brain...
...crack open your skull; they just drill a couple of small holes to put the wires through. Tiny holes. Itsy-bitsy holes. Teensy-weensy little holes. The propaganda they give you when you sign up for the operation describes the holes as "dime-sized." That took me aback. The dime, there's no denying, is a seriously undersized coin. But frankly, I wasn't thinking coins at all. I was thinking grains of sand. A dime is huge! The hospital printout of all the things you can't do afterward describes it as "major brain surgery." Is there minor brain...