aback

adverb

Backwards; back.


phrasal verb

to be taken aback

To be or become very surprised or deeply shocked.

Examples:

From all happenings, Bruno was taken aback mainly by Doctor Barton's subsequent reaction: He stopped the comers with a firm gesture and did not allow them to run to the collapsed hostess's easement. Ohhh, were they documentarily dealing with a weirdish, deep-down malicious man after all? (Context: Grandma Estela seems to be having a fit on the floor in her kitchen. Dr∙ Barton stops everyone, and they are not allowed to help her. What's going on?? Source: J∙ Okram - The Mystery of the Rammed Key.)

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Julion Okram's Word Explainer is a concise dictionary of uncommon, less standard and expert words appearing in mystery thrillers and science fiction adventures. It contains little-known or fictional geographical names, scientific terms, slang, professional jargons, archaisms, dialects, neologisms, composite expressions, etc⋅. Find word definitions, alternative meanings, occasional notes about etymology and stems, and story-related contextual remarks. The entire vocabulary is searchable online. Readers wishing to go offline or have a printed reference at hand can download this full glossary as a wordbook in PDF format.