to jolt
- verb
- /dʒoʊlt/
- Wednesday morning, long before the alarm went off, I was jolted from twisting dreams by the telephone.
- jolted awake
When I move and smile and jolt my face around, I have wrinkles that move.
- When I move and smile and jolt my face around, I have wrinkles that move.
- And they break the farthest in and they jolt straight up into the atmosphere and they're so big and tall that when they break the lift can't actually make it to the bottom.
Examples
-
John Cutter sits upright in bed, jolted from the nightmare.
Fiction book (1992) -
Selina fires her stun gun at the answering machine, jolting it off.
Fiction book (1992) -
I start to sleep and then I jolt awake.
-
When I move and smile and jolt my face around, I have wrinkles that move.
-
When my line was hit, I was jolted and had forgotten I was fishing at all.
Fiction book (1993) -
Humans weren't supposed to be able to get up so quickly after being jolted like that.
Fiction book (1991) -
The van revs its motor, jolts forward through traffic, blaring its horn.
Fiction book (1993) -
The kegs and jars had begun jolting free of their lashings.
Fiction book (1995) -
McArthur stamped on the accelerator and jolted his big green car over a curb.
Fiction book (1992) -
The car hit a pothole and jolted my coffee mug off the table.
Synonyms
To move quickly from side to side or up and down
To move something suddenly and sharply
To move suddenly and unsteadily, often forward or to one side
To move or make something move with a sudden strong shake
Shake quickly and strongly, often making a loud noise
To move with a sudden sharp shake, for example over bumps
Antonyms
How Abrupt
Surface Forms
Etymology
The verb jolt grew from that same image of a quick hit or bump. To jolt something is to give it a sudden rough movement, so it means 'to move with a sudden, jerky motion'.