Word: aback
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...people would be interested in very specific training, in oil economics for example. But they told us to leave that to them." Frye says that both the government and business representatives were looking for an over-all approach to the area--its background and languages. "We were really taken aback. We had expected them to respond to such general training, although it was precisely what we had desired all the time...
...drain (TIME, March 7) appeared to be working. "But we cannot be satisfied yet," he said. "It is only by looking forward and outward, by expansion, by liberating the human spirit to give and do of its best, that our island people can survive." Laborites jeered; taken slightly aback, Butler (a highly sophisticated man) looked sheepish. Such rhetoric is rare in British budget speeches, which are generally regarded as sound only if they are drab...
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...