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.

Europeans were left scrambling for a seat at the table last week, after they were seemingly caught unawares when the US draft peace plan was presented.

From BBC • Nov. 24, 2025

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

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

With this benediction, abruptly, he set oiT running; and I, caught unawares, ran after him, and within a few steps had mastered his pace.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson