unawares

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.

All of those clips are mesmerizing and alluring and haunting, as if we’re actually looking at invisible spirits or fairies captured unawares.

From New York Times • Dec. 6, 2024

Although heavy rain had been battering the area for hours, many, like Guillermo Serrano Pérez and his family, were caught unawares by the force of the floods.

From BBC • Oct. 30, 2024

Because forecasters were caught unawares, so were local residents, who only expected perhaps a Category 2 storm.

From Scientific American • Oct. 25, 2023

Or perhaps radioactivity would bring about a dystopian nightmare: As Rutherford liked to say, "Some fool in a laboratory might blow up the universe unawares" by triggering a planetary chain reaction.

From Salon • Aug. 12, 2023

‘I do not wish to meet that old man at unawares without an argument ready to hand, that is all. Let us go!’

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien