Meaning & use
Aback
Last updated
By surprise; used almost exclusively in the phrase "taken aback," meaning startled or disconcerted.
See it in a sentence
I was taken aback by how blunt her feedback was.
He seemed taken aback when the interviewer asked about his previous salary.
A note on using this word
Originally a nautical term describing a ship's sails pressed backward by a sudden wind shift, which later inspired the figurative sense of being caught off guard.
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