take aback

English

Etymology

(nautical) A square-rigged ship is taken aback when the wind blows on the front of the sails.

Verb

to take aback (third-person singular simple present takes aback, present participle taking aback, simple past took aback, past participle taken aback)

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To surprise or shock; to discomfit.

   I was rather taken aback by his angry reply.

   The bad news took us aback.

2. (nautical, usually passive) Of a ship: to catch it with the sails aback suddenly.

Usage notes

• Most commonly found in the passive form.
• The object may appear before or after aback. If the object is a pronoun, then it must be before aback.

Translations

to surprise or shock

Bulgarian: изненадвам (bg), издебвам (bg) Croatian: iznenaditi, osupnuti, zapanjiti, preneraziti Czech: překvapit (cs) Finnish: ällistyttää (fi), järkyttää (fi) German: überraschen (de)

Greek: ξαφνιάζω (el) (xafniázo) Irish: bain siar as (ga) Scottish Gaelic: cuir iongnadh air (gd) Spanish: agarrar en curva, sorprender (es), pasmar (es), asombrar (es), dejar pasmado (es), dejar estupefacto (es), agarrar de sorpresa (es)

to catch with sails aback

Finnish: joutua vastatuuleen