Word: aback
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...hesitated, a little taken aback. The place where he found himself was, to say the least, surrealistic. In front of him was the crude semblance of an early nineteenth century drawing room with men and women strewn about in various histrionic positions. A little man with flowing red hair was wandering about among them, muttering to himself and glaring at the Vag. Yet when he looked behind him, the Vag knew indubitably that he was at the bottom of a swimming pool, sans water, and above him were tier upon tier of weird looking people, perched on diving boards...
Pennsylvania's Guffey was not the only Senator who had been taken aback. Sena tor Lewis and others had speeches pre pared. But Vice President Garner, well aware that the Bill was sure to pass eventually, had timed the start of his steam roller accurately and gauged his colleagues' reaction to perfection. Prevailing mood of the Senate suddenly became one of over whelming relief, and laughter almost drowned out the angry voice of Senator Guffey still demanding to be recorded as against the Bill. With supreme assurance the Vice President dismissed the demand by shouting back: "The Senator...
True, Mr. Lewis was apparently taken aback by the speed with which his lieutenants moved in the automobile industry. He was "going after" the big bad boys in the steel industry, he announced some months ago. But now he has agily leaped the automobile bandwagon and seized the reins. And yesterday came a statement whose inspiration is obvious, one bristling with demands all the way from a thirty-hour week to union representation...
...verge of being disgraced for his homosexuality before he was killed in action, fell in love with a cheerful, courageous Harvard graduate who was serving with the British troops. Readers accustomed to scathing portraits of U. S. citizens in British and European fiction are likely to be taken aback by Vera Brittain's eloquent, recurring, heartfelt tributes to U. S. generosity, youth, bravery, virility, as well as by the strange slang she attributes to her U. S. characters. Ruth gives herself to her U. S. lover, is heart broken after his death in the Argonne that...
Most observers would have been less taken aback by the Republican nominee's moderation if they had previously familiarized themselves with the views of Charles Phelps Taft, public-spirited son of the 27th U. S. President. Before Young Republicans in Topeka one day last December, this Cincinnati lawyer appeared to discuss his civic lessons as they applied to national government. Governor Alf Landon, mightily impressed by the speech, was glad to shake the Taft hand, talk things over. Their minds met. Charlie Taft went home, expanded his speech into a 111-page book, You And I-And Roosevelt...