take by surprise
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Buccaneers next landed 100 men, hoping to take by surprise the city of La Serena.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Walter Thornbury
Be set down for a fool, a lazy rascal and a fop, and it is easy enough to take by surprise those who think they have the whip-hand of you.
From Treasure of Kings Being the Story of the Discovery of the \"Big Fish,\" or the Quest of the Greater Treasure of the Incas of Peru. by Charles Gilson
He then prepared for a bold and sudden movement, which should take by surprise one flank of our army.
From Three Years in the Sixth Corps A Concise Narrative of Events in the Army of the Potomac, from 1861 to the Close of the Rebellion, April, 1865 by George T. Stevens
I expect to take by surprise a newly-married pair in their honeymoon, and I find a state of things here which I should never have supposed possible.
From Success and How He Won It by E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers) Werner
The two were superbly mounted, and well calculated, by their style and bearing, to take by surprise the leader of a rabble host marching through a country where all was new to his eyes.
From The Great Mogul by Louis Tracy
